THE LORDS' COMMITEE ON INTEMPERANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 142, 16 June 1879, Page 4

THE LORDS' COMMITEE ON INTEMPERANCE.

The report of (be Select Committee of the House of Lords on lutemperance was issued on March 23rd. The principal recommendations of the Committee are as follows: That legislative facilities ehouid be afforded for the local adoption of the Gothenburg and of Mr Chamberlain's echemes, or of some modification of them. That renewals of beer bouses licensed before 1869 should be placed on the same footing as those of public houses. That in cases of decisions affecting the renewal of licenses, in boroughs having separate quarter sessions, the appeal should be to the Recorder, where there is such a functionary, and not as at present to the county justices. That it should be expressly enacted that justices should be authorised to refuse transfers on the same grounds of misconduct as those on which renewals of licenses are now refused. That no removal of a license from one house to another should be sanctioned without giving to the inhabitants of the locality to which the removal is pioposed the opportunity of stating their objections. That do structural alterations of houses licensed for drinking on the premises, should be made without the previous approval of the licensing authority. That a considerable increase should be made in license duties. That on week days licensed houses in England outside the metropolis should not be opened before 7 a.m., and that they should be closed one hour earlier (ban at present in the evening. That licensed housps ia Scotland and Ireland should be closed one hour earlier than at present on week days. That on Sunday licensed houses in the metropolis should be opened from one to three p.m. for consumption off the premises only, and for consumption on the premises, from seven to eleven p.m. That in other places in England they should be open from 12.30 to 230 p.m. for consumption off the premises only, and for consumption on the premises from seven to ten p.m in populous placeei and from seven to nine in other places. That it should be made clear that even if a person professing to be a lona Jide traveller has on the previous night lodged outside the three-mile limit, as defined by the Act, it still rests with the magistrate before whom his caae may be brought to determine whether he ia a lona fide traveller or not. That justifies should have discretionary power i of licensing music-halls and dancing saloons in the country, as at present in the metropolis, wlietbe? connected with publio-hoases or not, and

that all such places should be subject to supervision by the police. Thofc serious offences, such as those contained in the first category of the Act of 1872, should entail compulsory endorsement of the license, and that the treating of constables should be added to the Hat of offences included in tbe second category. That any person "having or keeping for sale" any intoxicating liquor without a license should be liable to penalties of the same description and amount as those under tbe existing law for " selling or for exposing for Bale/ and that tbe powers of apprehension upon warrant iv cases of illicit drinking, as in the Glasgow Local Act, shonld be generally applied. That tbe entering of liquor under some other name upon the bill of a shopkeeper holding a license to sell off the premise 3 should be an offence Bgnicst tho license punishable by immediate forfeiture. Thai a list of convictions, kept by tbe justices' clerks, should be legal evidence of previous convictions. That all occasional licenses to sell elsewhere than on licensed premises Bhould be granted by two justices at petty sessions assembled. In Scotland the committee recommend that the amount of fines and the terms of imprisonment should be made to follow those of the English Act, and be, like them, progressive. The severer penalties should be imposed, as in England, oq persons in charge of of hotsea, oarriagee, &c , and that "publicans should be made liable to the same penalties for harboring thieves, prostitutes, &c, as ia Englmd under the Prevention of Crimes Aat. That tbe recommendation of the Royal Commission of 1877, for Scotland, oq grocer's licensee, should be adopted for Ireland as far as they may be applicable, and especially that spirits should be sold in closed vessels only for minimum quantities. They also recommend that a qualification of value should be required for a public-house license. That in Ireland and in Scotland, as at present in Euglaad, no spirits should be supplied to children under sixteen years of age.