A LIQUOR LICENSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1923, Page 5

A LIQUOR LICENSE.

REFUSED BY A COMMITTEE. GRANTED BY THE CUSTOMS. CANNOT BE REVOKED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Tauranga, Last Night. An echo of an important application before the Licensing Committee at Tauranga in 1920 for an accommodation license at Matamata, which the committee by a majority declined, was heard at the last .meeting of the Licensing Committee, when one member reported that the Collector of Customs at Auckland had granted a license o the Paeroa Brewery Company to sell beer at « depot at Matamata in quantiies of not less than two gallons. The position is that section forty-six of the Finance Act, 1917, gives a Collector of Customs this power without reference to a Licensing Committee. On it becoming known that such a license had been granted certain parties protested to the Minister, who instructed" the collector to cancel the license. He endeavoured to do so, but was faced with a Supreme Court action by the brewery company and Mr. Justice Stringer ruled that the collector could grant the license but had no power to revoke it, and judgment was therefore given for the plaintiff company with costs ten guineas and disbursements against the collector. The position, therefore, is that what the Licensing Committee declined has been granted in part by the Collector of Customs without the power of supervision or revocation and without the necessity of consulting the committee.

The Licensing Committee passed a resolution that the granting of the license was a reflection on it, and that the Minister be asked to take steps to revoke the power given to collectors to grant such licenses, which should rest only on the committee, and that it be given power to cancel the license in question when deemed fit.