ELECTORAL ALTERATIONS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 40, 2 October 1911, Page 6

ELECTORAL ALTERATIONS

B.C'JEL LICENSES AFFECTED

A DEFECT IN THE LAW

(Per Press Association.) .Wellington, October 1. One result of the deliberations of the Representation Commissioners is that.the Porirua and pahautanui hotels .have been put into the Wellington Suburbs electorate, which is “dry,” and therefore their position in connection with, the next licensing poll has been made considerably more difficult than it would otherwise have been. The matter was brought under the.notice of Sir James Carroll yesterday (in the absence, through illness, of Sir Joseph Ward) by a deputation from the two districts.affected. The deputation was introduced by Mr W; H. Field, M.P., and Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P., who urged that it was not onty concerned about the hotels, but it wanted to ask the Government to remedy a defect in the law which was perfectly monstrous in its results, that hotels could be closed not by the will of the people but by the movement of population, and the consequent action of the Representation Commissioners. Such a result wasi never contemplated by the law, and no-license members'of the House with whom he had conferred agreed that a, gross injustice was caused, and that the result was likely to be prejudicial. to the no-license movement. What the. deputation wanted ,said Mr Field, was to get an amendment of the law passed this session with the object of removing a gross injustice. If it were not done this session it would be too late. Tire Hon. T. Duncan pointed out that if this sort of thing wont on it would be possible to have prohibition carried all over the Dominion without a poll of the people being taken. Mr J. E. Fitzgerald remarked that the deputation was the result of the indignation felt by the residents of the district, and consisted of the oldest and most respected residents, who felt that they had been subjected to an injustice. Sir James Carroll said, in reply, that the deputation had made out a very strong case for consideration. He was sorry the Prim© Minister wa. not able to be present. The. whole question was not. one of a political or a commercial character; it was a question- of whether the rights granted under existing laws dependent on the exercise of the will of the people should be taken away, not after an appeal to the will of the people, but by th accident of the readjustment of the electoral boundaries. It was so foreign and repugnant to every Democratic principle on which we prided ourselves. He did not believe that when the Legislature framed the licensing law it was for a moment contemplated that traps should be laid in which any section of the people might fall. He thought it was a pure oversight and accident. It was not a oft rthego ’ hotels, or as to whether they were required.; it was a question- virtually as to whether any one section of .the community should suffer without ; be-, ing given an opportunity of .'.defence.. If these hotels were hot' inquired there, it was for the people’Ad ; say so,-. and yet, merely through >an alteration of the electoral boundaries, that right was taken away from’ the people. Relief had been given’ in similar cases, and that was strongly supportive of the claim made by the deputation. He was confident that the fair sense of these opposed to licensed houses would not allow thorn to pride themselves on any victories achieved through- such an accident. Ho gave them credit, for a sense of fair play in matters of this kind, and believed that they would accord sympathy to the cases mentioned by the deputation. Ho would lay tne matter before the Prime Minister,' together with the urgent request, that steps should be taken at the earliest opportunity to put matters right.