REFUSED—GRANTED.

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 372, 18 June 1926, Page 6

REFUSED—GRANTED.

Jones has just returned from a visit to Auckland. Any new r s from the Queen City of the North? Yes! there’s quite a big fuss over the action of the Licensing Committee. What have they done or failed to (in'.’ You remember the old Thames Hotel in Queen Street which was demolished? ? Yes! I remember, they applied for a transfer to a new building in Quay Street, right on the water front, but the Licensing Committee refused the transfer, because an hotel was not required in that district. So that eiid.nl the matter, and it is stale newv, now. Make no mistake, the Trade doesn’t let things end so easily. But what could they do, the transfer was refused, and the license lapsed didn’t it? They ceased the sale of liquor at the bar, did they not?

I think so, but now there is a new Licensing Committee. New blood on it? Well, scarcely, practically it is the same Committee. However, they have changed their point of view, and now, when an application w'as made for a license for the Ambassadors, they granted it. Is that the building when' they considered a license not necessary? Yes, the same place on the water front. In the meantime it has been

built up and added to and furnished. But why do this after a license had been refused? That’s the question, and I can’t answer it. And, as the voting is secret, the electors will not know' who broke their pledge and voted for the license. What an anomaly, an elected body which is not responsible to its electors. The Magistrate as Chairman, announced the result, and stated plainly and fearlessly that he had opposed the issue of the license because his opinion was unaltered, a license w r as not necessary on the w’ater front. Good for the S.M., glad he had grit enough to stick to his own opinion. Were all the members present and did they all vote? No, one was away, out of town. But he ought to have been there! Why was he away? Ask me something easier.