SYDENHAM LICENSING BENCH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6872, 9 March 1883, Page 5

SYDENHAM LICENSING BENCH.

TO THB KDITOB. Sib, —Your report in to-day's paper of the doings of the above Licensing Committee reveals the necessity of the public keeping a sharp look out. Statements were made in support of an application for a new license at which one has to look twice to make sore he is not mistaken in the reading of them. It is there stated by an eminent member of the legal profession that the site for which application’wos made, described as being at the corner of Durham street and Battersea street, is a quarter of a mile from any other licensed house, the nearest being that of Mr Lawrence, also in Battema street and Colombo road. The distance of these two sites ean be Judged by all those who know the ret a*, ire positions of Colombo street and Durham street In this city or in Sydenham; it is some ten chains, or one-eighth of a mile, ds to Durham street, Sydenham, being one of the two main thoroughfares in the Borough, this, too, doubtless, would cot have been known to the Committee before, as also the population being large, and having increased since last licensing day. But the facts stated by counsel that on this section a licensed househad once stood, which had unfortunately been burnt down, causing a loss to the applicant (Mr Scrimshaw) of £2OOO, are news indeed. Surely this mu>t be a mistake. One has a dim recollection of a boarding house occupied by a man named Fitzgerald, which at one time bad a license for beer, and situated, not in Durham street, but in Harper street, corner of Battersea street. Ibis, house was burnt down some three or four years ago, and was the site for which Mr Scrimshaw applied for a license in Juno last, and was unsuccessful. This house might have been worth £lso, if that was the one referred to. Statements of fact, fortunately, can be easily verified. The Committee are men acquainted with the district, so I cannot see what can be the object of these statements, only, of course, to make out a case. If the neighbourhood requires the said house, let it be so, but we certainly hope that the expression of their will will be allowed to decide this important matter and that no encouragement to the outlay upon an expensive building should be given without such expression having been sought for, and the fullest opportunity of testing the feeling of the neighbourhood, with whose interests it will most seriously interfere.—l am, £c., March & VMS FLAT.