SOME FURTHER PARTICULARS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11101, 21 October 1901, Page 5

SOME FURTHER PARTICULARS.

(StBCIXL tO "THE rKESS.") WELLINGTON, October 20. The following further particulars of the Premier's Licensing Bill will supplement what I sent on Friday night The endorsement of a. license shall lapse in twelve months if a second conviction has not been recorded on the license within that period. The law relating to wholesale licenses is altered to provide that the two gallons which may be sold are to Jjo "of the same description of liquor." For the purposes of section ICI of the Licensing Act of 1881, relating to adulteration, the Governor may from time to time declare any ingredient or material to bs injurious to health, and in such case any liquor with which this ingredient cr material is mixed shall be deemed to be adulterated. It is provided by clause 10 that all prosecutions for the breach of the provisions of the licensing Acts shall, be commenced within twenty-one days after date of breach, and not later. Clause 11 prohibits Licensing Committees from granting any publican's license or transfer ot such license uuliss the applicant, if a tenant, is entitled to hold the premises under a. good and Subsisting written lease, nor unless, if the tease is executed after the passing of this Act, it ia granted for nob less than four years. Every, such lease is to be lodged with the application for license. Under clause 12 it snail not be lawful for the owner or landlord oi any licensed premises to demand or receive "any consideration for his jconsent to any assignment, sub-lease, or transfer of the license or house b$ the licensee. Any moneys so paid may be recovered as a debt. The owner or landlord shall not refuse his consent- to any assignment, gub-lease. or transfer to any person who has a certificate oi: fitness from a stipendiary magistrate/anything to the contrary in any lease, deed, or document notwithstanding. Power is given by clause 17 to any person convicted of a breach of the licensing Acts, to appeal under the Justices of the .Peace Act, 1882, irrespective of the amount of jpenaJty jmposedi. The Bill is larger than was expected, audit has not much hope of becoming law, as time is of the greatest importance at this stage of the session, and tho sheai of amendments proposed by members will simply maka it impossible to get the Bill through.