LICENSING BENCH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 100, 2 June 1900, Page 2

LICENSING BENCH.

ANNUAL MEETIN'G.

The annual meeting of the Licensing Bench wes held at the Courthouse on Friday, June Ist.

Mr. Stanford said that he was placed in a somewhat singular position through having no committee. For the last three years the committee had exercised a wise and judicious discretion on all licensing matters, with the result that the licensed houses of the town were generally well-conducted and compared very favourably with those of other districts. The other day he had received a deputation of a number of the public on licensing matters. He did not feel sure whether he had done right in receiving the deputation or not, or, situated as he was, whether it was wise to listen to either side of the question. The matter had been commented on, and he had been represented as giving utterance to words chat were not in strict accordance with what he really did say. He had been asked to consider the matter of closing the licensed houses at 10 instead of 11, and had said that he had no intention of altering the present system this year. What he would do next year he could not say. He had generally found she licensed victuallers of New Plymouth upright, respectable, and lawabiding citizens, and because he felt chat he was addressing men of that kind he asked for their assistance and uppo:t in the administration of the iaw. There were two subjects that night to be mentioned which were brought up by the deputation. One was supplying prohibited persons with hqurr. He had regarded the law in •f-rei.ee to prohibited persons as wise aud Hatful as far as it went did from a knowledge of the cases that vino before him Prohibited persons I'ei * swn drutik, but he did not think he liquor was sold to them by the u'nlicu s, •'[■ th'it the latter had allowed Mtin io cuter their premises. He vjuld say considerable confidence i; '. ; h : way these moral weaklings get di ui.k was by sending someone else for lie l.qtior. If the licensees would do 1 their oest to stop this surreptitious supply they would, help in.

the law being properly administered. With regard to the supply of liquor to Maori womea, their friends obtained it for them in the same way. Mr, Samuel expressed his appreciation of what Mr. Stanford had said. He was not there, he stated, as counsel for anybody, but simply as President of the Law Society. The question of receiving a deputation from part of the townspeople was one of importance, and he did not think it wise or judicial for a Stipendary Magistrate and President of the Licensing Banch to listen to either party on the matter. With regard to the matter of supplying drink to young persons, he had been surprised to read that His Worship was horrorstricken with the amount that was going on in New Plymouth. Personally, he had never Been one young person in New Plymouth under the influence of liquor in any house. Mr. Stanford stated that the opinion he had expressed about being horrorstricken was in reference to the drink among the Maori women.

The following transfers were granted: —Middleton's Hotel, J. Molley to J. Brennan (on the application of Mr. Samuel); Breakwater Hotel, A. G. Bishop to J. W. Hasluck (Mr. Weston); Red House Hotel, S. Hooper to A. GL Bishop (Mr. Weston); Knowles' Hotel, T. Knowles to T. O'Connor (Mr. Weston) ; Terminus Hotel, A. E. Eaynes to R. Hadfield(Mr. Weston). Renewals were granted to the following hotels:—lmperial, Red House, Breakwater, White Hart, Criterion, Taranaki, Terminus, Okato, Oakura, Knowles', Rahotu, and Village Inn. With reference to the last-named hotel, Mr. Stanford Btated that the police reported that the house needed re-building, and a renewal would be granted on the condition that this [ matter should be kept in view.