THE LICENSING ACT PETITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9436, 6 August 1889, Page 3

THE LICENSING ACT PETITION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sie,—You gave in a recent number of your journal a copy of a petition which the Licensed Victuallers had put in circulation for signature, asking Parliament to repeal sections 63 and 75 of the Licensing Act, the principal clauses which confer the power of local option on the Licensing Committees. A counter-petition has been prepar-d by the Executive of the New Zealand Alliance, and forwarded to Mr. Goldie for presentation. I enclose a copy, and shall bo obliged if you will give it insertion in your journal. I understand that a similar petition will be presented by the Gospel Temperance and other associations.—lam, &c., Wμ. Fox, President New Zealand Alliance.

To the Honourable the House of Representatives. The petition of the undersigned (being the president of the New Zealand Alliance, acting under a resolution of the Executive Council of that body) respectfully showeth : 1. That your petitioner has been informed that a petition to your honorable House has been prepared by certain persons interested in the liquor traffic and hotel property, and signed by them and other ratepayers and residents in the Auckland provincial district, in "which your honorable House is informed that the Licensing Committee for the Auckland North Ward has deprived four publichouses of their licenses under the power conferred by sections 63 and 75 of the Licensing Act, 1881, and your honorable House is requested immediately to repeal the said sections. The onty reason given for such repeal by the petitioners is that they are fuhy convinced that your , honorable House would never sanction a law which would enable a section of the people to perpetrate an act of spoliation on another part of the community because of a difference of opinion as to the necessity for the use of intoxicating drinks. 1, 2. Your petitioner respectfully requests the consideration by your honorable House of the following facts : (a) That the law of 18S1 was passed after a very long and exhaustive deliberation, during which its principles and details were most carefully discussed, and that it is impossible that your honorable House should have failed to understand its provisions and objects. (b) That the sections complained of have been put in operation in several cases in various parts of New Zealand, and the power of the Licensing Committees to exercise their discretion in regard to non-renewals of licenses has been repeatedly confirmed by the Supreme Court, both in banco and on appeal. (c) That section 03, under which the four renewals were expressly refused, was contained in the previous Act of 1873, and was no new enactment of the Act of 1881, and iu oue case under the former Act, when seven renewals were refused at one time by the Licensing Bench at the Thames, the proprietor ot six of the houses appealed to your honourable House against the action of the committee. His petition was referred to the Public Petitions Committee, which, after ample investigation and after taking the opinion of the Government draftsman who had drawn the Act of 1874, the action of the Licensing Bench was fully sustained by your committee, hi) That section 63, which was thus imported from the Act of 1874 into the Act of 1881, was only permissive; but the f rainers of the latter Act, in order apparently to fortify the Licensing Committees, added section 75, which makes it imperative upon them to exercise their discretion on the question whether the house for wJiich a license or renewal is required is a necessity or not. And what can be more rational V Why should a publichouse which is not a necessity be allowed to exist? (e) Honourable members who assisted in passing the Act of 18S1 remember that there was a general impression iu the House that the existing number of publichouses was far in excess of the most liberal requirements of the colony, and their object in supporting the Act was not only to prevent the increase, but to secure a great and early decrease in their number. That the powers so vested in the Licensing Committees have not been abused is clear, from the fact that not more than 2o renewals have been refused in seven years on the ground of non-necessity, out of about 1500 publichouses in the colony. (/) That sections 63 and 75, as passed by your honourable House, sanctioned no "act of spoliation," as alleged, because the highest Courts of Law in both England and the colony have repeatedly decided that Licensed Victuallers have no vested interest in their licenses beyond the year for which they were granted, and an attempt made a few months ago in the Imperial Parliament to create such a vested interest was defeated by such an expression of opinion all over Great Britain as compelled a most powerful Government to abandon the attempt to perpetrate "so great an act of spoliation on the nation, as the creation of such a vested right would have involved, (y) That if your honourable House should acquiesce iu the prayer of the petitioners for the repeal of the sections referred to, it would simply be for the benefit of the brewers, spirit importers, and publicans, few in number; but it would intensify and continue the terrible spoliation of the community by the ruin of inebriates, their wives and families, and the enormous cost of the gaols, lunatic asylums, penitentiaries, hospitals, refuges and charitable aid boards, which are chiefly the outcome of a traffic for which the petitioners are endeavouring to provide further opportunities of evil. 3. Your petitioner therefore prays that your honourable House will not alter the existing Licensing Act in any way which would limit or lessen the local option powers provided by the same, or interfere with the discretion which the Acts of 1873 and ISBI deliberately conferred on the Licensing bodies. —I am, &c, WIUJAap 3?OX, President of New Zealand Alliance.