LIQUOR BILL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 146, 14 March 1908, Page 5

LIQUOR BILL.

THE TIME-HIT FOR COMPENSATION. BISHOP OF LONDON'S VIEW. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS" ASSOCIATION--—COPYEIGHI '■ London, March 12. Tho Right Rev. Dr. Ingram, Bishop of London, advocacs that tho time-limit in tho Licensing Bill, Within- which compensation is to be paid, should bo fixed at twontyono ye:frs, instead of fourteen years. . TO SECURE THE -MONOPOLY VALUE., Tho question of compensation.and the timelimit, and what the Government's Bill should provide, is thus discussed by .Sir Thos. P. Whittaker, Liberal member of the House of Commons for Spon 'Valley division of Yorkshire, who was a member of the. Royal Coniimssion on Licensing , Laws"Among, tho essentials are: (1) That a time notico should be given that at the.eiid of a specified term o£ years all payment l of' compensation; on the non-renewal of a license, will cease, \ and all licenses then remaining will . revert;. to tbp State, and such of ' them •as it - may-at,-the time bo decided to , re-issue. . shall .only'be, granted; on the full monopoly value of. tho license being paid for,it. /'To merely enact a time-limit to tho : opera-' tion of the compensation clauses of tho Act of 1901 would be useless.- That' < would"only restore the position as it was before that Act was l passed; and we should.still have.'the.;old compensation' difficulty to face, with t the "license-holder in a stronger position th.it ■ lie was before. The deadlock iu. which Sire"found, ourselves prior to IAO - was that as, licenses had a very substantial' market'"Value'it''was almost impossible to induce Justices to' reduce the number by refusing to renew them, • unless it could bc'.shown that''the;hold'o't had' been guilty of serious •misconduct. v "Tho only grounds on),which a compensation arrangement. can, ,be,;, defended,,'.and,-; tolerated, even as a temporary, expedient,'are (1). that it will enable a largo and speedy reduction"to be made in tho number of licensed premises, and (2) that at the .end of a given time, it., will leave tho public'with an' absolutely -free hand to do what is likes-wit hits own .licenses, without any possibility „of ,a,claim.to: a .vested, interest being raised. 'v.' " ' /'Licenses liavo. a market ..value,,,because,the license duly which is charged for them' is. altogether inadequate, and far less than they,' are worth. Jf the present compensation arrangements were simply terminated at the end of a given time and the old system reverted to, licenses would still have a market value—a value which would have increased enormously owing to the great reduction in the number of licenses in . proportion '.'to' populatibh durihg the compensation period—and all the old compensation claims, and the difficulties connccted therewith, would, bp revived. \ "The only way in which tho nation can resume completo control over and full possession of—and- there cannot bo complete control unless, there is full. possession—its own licenses and provent a. recrudescence of the old trouble, is by providing that at a given time all compensation shall ceaso, and for all . licenses then , and subsequently issued, the. full mon--opoly value—that is, the additional valuo which a licenso gives to the premises to which it is attached—shall ,bo paid for it.L.- That amendment of the existing law is, therefore, vital and fundamental"; :

According to the recently cabled 6uniniary, the Government's Bill provides that "after •fourteen years. ;the monopoly value, of >all licenses will bo restored to the community, and local option will follow. , . ,