THE POLICE AND THE LICENSING ACT.

Evening Star, Issue 7624, 29 May 1888, Page 1

THE POLICE AND THE LICENSING ACT.

There has been what we cannot deem other than a very ill-judged attempt to prejudice the police in the eyes of the public in respect to the proceedings recently taken against several holders of publican's licenses for illicit sales of liquor. The fact of the matter is that in many Dunedin houses a brisk bar trade has been notoriously done on Sundays, whilst under the terms of the Act it has proved exceedingly difficult, indeed next to impossible, to secure the conviction of offending licensees, since absolute proof is required that liquor has been sold or exposed for sale, and, if sold, that it has been sold to other than the inmates of the hotel or bona fide traveller* Complaints as to the systematic defiance of the Act have been very general for some time; and, we may presume, it became necessary that effective measures should be taken to put an end to what has been little else than a scandal. The law, it must be recollected, does not constitute the purchase or consumption of liquor during prohibited hours an offence, unless the liquor is obtained under the false pretence, either that the person requiring it is a bona fide traveller or a lodger; under which circumstances he is liable to a penalty not exceeding .£5. The police constables, therefore, who in plain clothes made a round of the licensed houses, were served with drink, and paid for them, were not themselves guilty of any breach of the statute ; and the case, therefore, is not by any means on all fours with the suppositious one which has been conceived, where a policeman might become an accessory in order to sheet home a crime. Such an idea is very far fetched, and, indeed, simply preposterous. Detective work has almost necessarily to be carried out under a system of espionage, and, although not altogether agreeable, is clearly a not unimportant function of the police force. In respect to ordinary breaches of the Licensing Act, there is really little choice as to the method, if convictions are to be obtained and the provisions of the Act strictly enforced. It is not to be expected that customers who have been obliged would turn round and inform against the licensee; and as for the police keeping up a reconnaissance over every bar all day on Sundays, is altogether out of the question—Argus himself, who, according to the legend, was eyes all over, could not have done it. If any licensees, or the general body of licensees, feel aggrieved their course is very clear: let them in future conform to the law! The police would thus be relieved of what, we feel sure, is a most unpleasant duty.