OHINEMURI LICENSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 23

OHINEMURI LICENSES.

COMMITTEE NOW FREE TO ACT. AUCKLAND. July 2. An injunction prohibiting the Ohinemuri Licensing Committee from granting licenses to the Paeroa Hotel, at Paeroa, the Kerepeehi Hotel, at Kerepechi, and the Golden Cross Hotel, at Waihi, was set aside by Mr Justice Stringer at the Supreme Court to-dav aftei a hearing occupying most of the aay. The action arose out of the refusal of the committee to grant a license to Mary Blackley Montgomery (Mr H. O. Cooney) for a hotel at Waitoa. Last Saturday Mr Cooney obtained a rule nisi to quash the refusal, and an order prohibiting the committee from granting licenses to three other hotels. Mr Cooney had applied to the committee for an adjournment of his application and a statement in writing of tno committee’s grounds of refusal, both of which were refused He then stated his objection to the personnel of the committee, mentioning particularly William Marshall, Walliam John Towers, and Francis William Walters, members of the committee, on the grounds that Marshall and Towers werfe working on renovations to tho hotels in Paeroa and were not fit persons to sit in judgment on his application, and that Walters had given a pledge against the granting of a license to the Waitoa Hotel, and had taken an active part in the preparation of a memorial to the committee against the granting of this license. As a consequence of this action the committee was unable to grant a license to the three hotels mentioned. At to-day’s hearing a motion was filed on behalf of the defendants to have the prohibition set aside, and this was upheld by the court. The committee meets again on Monday, and it will be in a position to grant the licenses to the three houses, of which are now ready to open for business. It was stated that further proceedings would be taken in connection with the committee’s refusal to grant the Waitoa Hotel license.