DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2884, 30 June 1909, Page 62

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

HON. DR FINDLAY INTERVIEWED. CHRISTCHURCH, June 27. J.he Hon. Di- Findlay arrived in town yesterday morning for the purpose of ' transacting departmental business, and returned WeDingten last -night. Regarding the- granting of (.wholesale I liquor licenses in the* -King Country, tlse i Minister said that a great denl,of'indigna- . tion had been .expressed . in. "the "North, I -Island in , reference 'to. -the matter.. Tha decision had been arrived at by one "Vote " on the Licensing Committee. Apparently - it\ contravened the whole spirit of the. legislation applicable to wholesale licenses in that part of the Dominion, and it was regarded by the best friends of the Maori race as a serious menace to their wellbeing and progress. from, that; if the grant ware illegal ifc should^ be quashed. As Attorney-general, therefore, he liad given instructions to the Crown Law Office to take proceedings to have the granting of the licenses /tested by certiorari in the Supreme Court, if upon full consideration it was found that the grant was not strictly within the powers of the committee. Dr Findlay said that he had no news for publication in regard to the appointment of Mr H. W. Bishop as a commissioner to inquire into the position, of the police force. The order of reference ha<s not 'been drawn up, and the scope of the inquiry had not been settled. The , Minister said that investigations were being made regarding the reformatory prison at Momohaki, and he hoped to have the' system inaugurated- as soon as the necessary buildings to enable classification ;to be, carried out had been erected. ' He was also preparing » scheme . of classification of prisoners throughout the Dominion, but was encountering serious difficulties on. account of the struc- ' lural divisions in the existing gaols. Ifc . would probably be easier if Tie could 1 adapt the gaols to the classification system rather than the system to the gaols. Provision was being made for single cells at the tree-planting stations.