POWERS OF LICENSING COMMITTEE.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1920, Page 6

POWERS OF LICENSING COMMITTEE.

RE-BUILDING AN HOTEL. AN ILLEGAL ORDER. At the September sitting of the Taranaki Licensing Committee, held yesterday, application was made on behalf of the owner of the Terminus Hotel (Mrs. Tabor) by Mr. C. H. Weston, for a reconsideration of the stipulation made at the August meeting that the renewal of the license in respect of the hotel would be subject to plans for re-build-ing being in the hands of the committee before the September meeting. At the previous: meeting the committee also endorsed the opinion expressed by Mr. ■Poynton, S.M., at the annual meeting, that the building should be re-built. It was reported to yesterday's meeting by the clerk that no plans had been received. Mr. Weston submitted that the condition the committee strove to attach to the renewal of the' license and the resolution that the house must be rebuilt were clearly ultra vires. Counsel quoted the judgment of Mr. Justice Cooper, Retting out that a licensing committee had no power to require :t house to be re-built where the existing building satisfied the standard required by the Licensing Act. He contended that in this instance the requirements as to repairs, sanitation and accommodation, as set out in the Act, had been satisfied. The judgment of His Honor was given in 1000, when there was, said counsel, what might be described as almost a craze that the hotels throughout the country should be re-built. Mr. \yeston, in asking that the Committee's previous resolution be rescinded, submitted that in addition to the order being illegal it was also operating unjustly, as it depreciated the value of the building in the eyes of intending purchasers. After retiring, the chairman (Mr. 1. A. B. Bailey, S.M.), announced the com-; mittee had considered the position, and recognised that perhaps they had gone beyond their powers in making it a condition that the issue of the license that the house should be re-built. A motion had been carried that the resolution imposing the condition be rescinded. The committee individually, however, were of opinion that, in the interests of the Trade, and of New Ply. mouth, there should be a new house. It was an extremely good site for a house, and an up-to-date building there should be a good proposition.