THE POSITION IN NEWTOWN.

Southland Times, Issue 19006, 27 March 1903, Page 2

THE POSITION IN NEWTOWN.

Oi tiie results oi tue licensing coin-

mil lees umcuoiis thai uppeaieii

esLciuay s issue, oy mi* tne most, interesting wiu» inc-^ictory' vi me

JL'rulubiUoii ticket xa Jscwtown.' , m that populous sutiuru tliu ugni lias raged iicrculy iov weeks. All the heat of feeling; generated Ij.V the voiding ol' the .Local Option A' oll I'ou'nd an outlet in the election otV tne Coniinittef. liesentnient against the liquor party ran high, and the i"d«js£ that they were beaten by almost two to one seems to show tliat the hotelKcepciß liuvc not improvett their position ,by their action in moving against the ballot taken hi' N(rveuiber last. They have rather intensiiiod the disgust of the people by taking advantage of paltry and obscure points of law to defeat the wishes of the great majority of the electors of Newtown. They have now to face the prospect of further costly liUgntion, for the position in Newtown is this : the Prohibitionist Committee will refuse to grant licenses. In explanation of this course of action, the prolonged argument that ensued upon the voiding of the polls in Newtown and Bruce may be assumed up. Tl\o Prohibitionists contend that before licenses can bo granted tjie will of tjhe people must be ascertained by a poll, and point to section 8 of "The Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act, 1895." This section provides that no license of any description* shall bo or renewed until the electors of the district have determined in favour of

one or other of .the issues put before' them at the Local -Upt'ioii B*>ll.— n('r* license, reduction, or cojitinuance. Now it is pointed out that .the boundaries of the electorjites^were. altered by the Commission of-Olfst year, a'hd that Newtown and Bruce' aj'e virtually new districts ix\ which the first Local Option poll was takijii last November. Consequently, if the poll is voided, thw electors- have not determined anything, and no licenses can bn granted or renewed. Had theelectoral districts hot been altered the determination of the electors .at the preceding polls (night have" been revived on the voiding of- th,o ballot of But the electorates - wei'o delimited afresh between polls, tho will of the electors was uever before ascertained, and the 'Prohibitionist _ Committee consequent ljr" say ih.at they have no power to grant or .renew licenses. For the other Rifle it j's contended, ! that, section Bj»f,^ the Act pf t89") provides that \diere no proposal is carried the existing hiu^ber of licenses shall continue in 'foi'ce until the next licensing poll has""*lipen taken, tJrat tho Voiding .of Itie poll leaves the district in the position of having carried no proposal, and""therefore the existing number of licenses must continue until 1905.

Such, briefly, is the position in Newjlown and IJruce. In Bruce the election of the Counnittec'docs not take place until the StitH hist., but tho -election of the No-License ticket in Nowtdwn determines what tho next step there will be. The Committee will refuse, to grant or renew licenses, <md the hotelkeepers, f- \ve presume, will ;\pply .to the -..Supremo Court for an order .compelling tho Committee to tfiwit licenses. _ 'Dion tho vexed dispute which has agitated the public mhul will come before the judges for settlement, .and the true efTeet of voiding the Local Option poll will be at length ascertained. It. of course suggests itself that fresh polls'^ should have been taken in Ifewtown nml Hrucp. But the law majkes no provision for a second poll, and though l^r* Justice Williams pointgd out. in a decision given three years ago that the Legislature had omitted to make, provision Xor the contingency of 'th'o'voiding,, of a poll, the defect was never, remedied, and the result is thut Newtown ,and Bruce have for weeks been the" vortices of perplexed and angry jegal controversies and of an acrimonious' •strife -that has called into action some of the strongest human pa«si'onsSMill of which might have been avoided.