A CREDITABLE VERDICT.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 823, 14 December 1905, Page 24

A CREDITABLE VERDICT.

The day before the local option poll was taken formal business had to be transacted at the quarterly sitting of the Auckland Licensing Committee, which was held in the Magistrate’s Court, the members present being Messrs R. W. Dyer, S.M. (president), A. Rosser, Graves Aickin, and P. E. Cheal. The following transfers were granted : Ponsonby Club Hotel from Francis George Raynes to Edward Quinn (reprsesented by Mr Baxter); Central Hotel from John William Speers to Charles Hainan (Mr McVeagh); and Freeman’s Hotel from Patrick Joseph Simons to William Derham (Mr McVeagh). The police reported that during the quarter the licensees of the Britomart and British Hotels had been convicted of permitting drunkenness. The committee decided to take no action in regard to the licenses of these hotels. A favourable report was received in regard to the Criterion Hotel, which the police had been requested to keep under observation. Mr Rosser remarked that there were 58 hotels in the district, and very little fault to find. He had just returned from a trip to the South, and considered that the Auckland hotels compared very favourably with those elsewhere. Mr Aickin: The hotels are a credit to the city and the police. Mr Dyer: Considering the population of the city and the number of hotels taking them on the whole they are very well conducted. Mr Cheal: In a seaport town at that. The president concluded the discussion by remarking that there must be infringements of the Act sometimes, but the police deserved credit for being very much on the alert.