“TOO MUCH POWER”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26556, 3 September 1947, Page 6

“TOO MUCH POWER”

MASTERTON LICENSING TRUST PROPOSALS CRITICISED • The grave concern of the New Zealand Alliance and of the Temperance Committee of the Presbytery of Dunedin at the implications of the proposed new licencing legislation for Masterton were expressed by Professor S. F. Hunter at the monthly meeting of the presbytery last night. He said that the Act would provide for the introduction of drinking in restaurants, a matter, which did not meet with universal approval, and that the Licensing Trust- would be given considerable power, as there was no Licensing Committee in Masterton. On his motion the following resolution was carried unanimously:— “With reference to the proposed legislation for the Masterton Licensing Trust, the Presbytery of Dunedin respectfully protests to the Government against the introduction of restaurant drinking, the omission of a licensing committee, and the wide powers given to the trust to issue occasional or conditional licences for ‘any fair, show, races, or other place of public amusement,’ the term ‘place of public amusement ’ having possibilities of very wide and dangerous definitions. “With regard to the situation of hotels, the presbytery holds that no licence or club charter should be operated in a residential area unless and until a referendum has been taken in terms of the report of the Royal Com-; mission on Licensing.”