PUBLICANS' COMPLAINT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17126, 30 October 1917, Page 4

PUBLICANS' COMPLAINT.

RESULT OF CHANGED BOUNDARIES.

DISCUSSED BY PARLIAMENT.

(Per United Press Association.)

t n, W^INGTON, Oct. 28. ' In the House on Saturday, the cUsabiiitesr- of ten licensees of South Island electorates, whose hotels iiave been transferred, through the electoral boundary changes, into "dry"" areas, were reported. The Committee recognised the extreme hardship of the petitioners' case, and the urgency of the matter, but as it w&s one of policy, no recommendation could be made.

-~£ u\£ os ?Ph Ward said he realised the difficulties of the position. General instructions had ; been issued' to the iJoiindanes Commissioners to endeavw to, a^t'ardshijps... The people's vote should be respected and the peopie should not sulfer if the Commissioners could avoid it. He quoted cases where hotels iiad been placed in "dry" areas and then put back into districts wh^re licenses existed. But in the meantime the original licensees, had been -ruined. Tbere should He fair play m the matter, and the. vote of the. people should be respected. Several members' protested against three Commissioners being able, by a stroke of the pen, to remove a hotel from a"dry* to a. "wet", area. Mr Massey said this was not the first time the difficulty had been met with. Injustices had occurred before but this time there appeared to be more sa. nous injustice then ever. H e had had many complaints of late, especially irom Otago; but members should recognise that the boundaries had not been Definitely settled, . the report of the Commissioners being only a temporary one. Objections could be lodged until November sth for the North Islaid, and to November 6th for the South Island.

The report was adopted.