THE NEW LICENSING BILL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4163, 24 July 1874, Page 3

THE NEW LICENSING BILL.

This Bill, a summary of which wo append, fulfils the expectations that reasonable persons would anticipate from the utterances that have fallen from the Premier on the subject, but it in no way justifies the extravagant ideas formed by some persona respecting the entire change that they deemed advisable in the whole conduct of the liquor trade: It is possessed of the merit owned by several Bills that have been introduced this session—of brevity and simplicity ; but it will not bo found to minister to the cravings of those who really do not know what they do want. The first clause gives it a local habitation and a name, validates every Licensing Court now constituted, and provides for informalities in the future. The “ said Act ” is, whilst the Bill is being read, to mean the Act of 1873. In clause 3 it is said that “All Acts or Ordinances which have been passed by any Provincial Legislature since the passing of the said Act, and so far as the same shall not be inconsistent with the said Act and this Act, shall remain in force and be read as part of the said Act and this Act.” The fourth, tenth, and seventeenth clauses of the “ said ” Act are repealed,' and the Government may appoint Licensing Courts of not more than seven members nor less than three, to hold ofjice for not less than two years. The Resident Magistrate, or the Chairman of the Court of Petty Sessions will be chairman, and the Court, to which a clerk is to be appointed, will sit in the Court-house, if there be one, and if not, as the Government may direct. The following are some of the novel or more important clauses ; 5. All licensing Courts constituted under the said Act, or the constitution of which is confirmed by this Act, shall continue in operation until the constitution of other Courts under this Act. 9. Notwithstanding anything in tho said Act contained, any person being tho holder of a public-house license may have more than one bar for tho sale of alcoholic liquors in or upon the premises in respect of which such license shall have been granted: Provided that

wherever there shall be more than one such bar in or upon any such premises as aforesaid, the holder of the license shall pay a fee for each additional bar at the rate of one-third of the fee payable for a publican’s license, or at such other rate as may be fixed by the Legislature of the Province within which such premises are situated. The number of bars in any licensed premises shall appear upon the face of the license, and after the grant of any publican’s license no additional bar shall be opened or used in or upon the licensed premises, except with the consent of the Licensing- Court for the district (which consent shall be endorsed on the license), and on payment of the prescribed fee as hereinbefore provided ; and if any person shall open or use any such bar for the sale of alcoholic liquors, or shall knowingly permit the same to be opened or used for such sale, without such consent and payment as aforesaid, be shall be deemed to have been guilty of selling without a license, and shall be liable to the penalty prescribed in the tenth section of the said Act. Wholesale and package licenses may be issued by Provincial Treasurers, or whosoever the Superintendent may appoint, and also brewers’ licences, subject to the provisions of the said Act, and this Act ; the Provincial Governments to fix the rate of the fees, unless the town should be corporate, and licences form a portion of municipal revenues. A distiller will require a special license, although he holds a brewer’s or wholesale license; and the Licensing Courts shall sit quarterly. But existing annual licenses may run through the time fpr which they are current. 12. On the first Tuesday at noon, in the months of December, March, June, and September, in each year, there shall be holden in each licensing district a meeting of the Licensing Court appointed for such district, to be called the quarterly licensing meeting, for the purpose of taking into consideration all applications for certificates fop such licenses as by the said Act (as amended by this Act) are authorised to be granted by Licensing Courts, and the transfer, or renewal, or removal of such licenses of which due notice shall have been given to the Clerk of the Licensing Court for the district in which the premises in respect of which such application is made'are situated. The clerks of the Licensing Courts must give one mouth’s notice of this by advertisement and otherwise ; and after this provision comes clauses from 15 to 20, .which are as follow: Every person who shall desire to obtain a publican’s license under the said Act at any quarterly licensing meeting, shall, at least fourteen days before such meeting, deliver, in duplicate, to the Clerk of the Licensing Court at which sucb application is to be heard, a notice in writing signed by him in the form in Schedule E to the said Act annexed, or to the effect thereof (accompanied by a certificate signed by at least ten householders in the form in the said Schedule E), of his intention to apply for a certificate for such license ; and the Clerk of the Court to whom any such notice shall have been given, shall cause to be affixed, on or before the twelfth day before the licensing meeting, a list of the names of the applicants, with their places of abode, together with the names of those persons signing their certificates, on some conspicuous place on the inside and outside of every Court House as aforesaid, there to remain until the day whereon the licensing meeting shall be held. On any application for a renewal of a publican’s license, it shall not be necessary for the applicant to obtain the certificate of any householders, as provided by the last preceding section. The provisions of the fifteenth section of this Act shall apply to applications for bottle licenses, and the form of application shall be altered to suit the circumstances of such application : Provided that no householders’ certificate shall be necessary on any application for a bottle license. A bottle license shall be in the form in the schedule hereto marked A or to the effect thereof, and shall authorise the holder thereof to sell and dispose of any alcoholic liquors in bottles corked and sealed, capsuled or wired, of sizes not less than those of which six or twelve are usually reckoned to the gallon, and not to he drunk in or upon the house or premises for which such license is granted. Whenever a publican’s license or a bottle license shall have been granted to any person, such person shall be entitled to a fresh license as a matter of course, unless he is shown to the satisfaction of the Licensing Court to have lost his good character ; and renewals of such licenses shall in every case be granted as a matter of course by sucb Licensing Courts, unless notice of objection has been given, as by the said Act and this Act is provided. No licensed person having given such notice as by this Act prescribed, shall be required to attend any licensing meeting for the purpose of procuring a renewal of bis license, unless notice of opposition to the renewal of sucb license, stating the grounds thei’eof, shall have been given to the clerk of the Court to which the application for renewal shall be made, who shall forthwith forward a copy of the notice of objection to the person interested. If any holder of a license (except a wholesale license a brewer’s license or a packet license) shall desire to transfer his license to any other person, ho shall deliver, in duplicate, a notice in writing, in the form in the schedule hereto marked B, to the clerk of the Licensing Court for the district within which the house or premises in respect of which the license is held is or are situate ; and such clerk shall cause one of such notices to be posted up in the same manner as is hereinbefore directed in respect to the application for granting a publican’s license, and such application for transfer of licenses shall be heard at the usual quarterly meeting. The forms of transfer are easy, and the transferree will have all the rights of the original holder of the license, which only expires on the 30 th day of June. 24. The foes payable for such licenses shall be as follows, that is to say —For all licenses dated on the first or second day of July in any year, the full amount of the license fees for the time being prescribed by any Act or Ordinance in force. For all licenses dated on the first or second day of October in any year, threefourths of the license fees proscribed as aforesaid. For all licenses dated on the first or second day of December in any year, one-half of tho license fees prescribed ns aforesaid. And for all licenses dated on tho first or second day of April in any year, one-fourth of the license fees prescribed as aforesaid. Purchasers of licensed houses may obtain temporary transfers of licenses, and these may bo transferred by their holders from one set of premises to another. The business of the houses may, too, be carried on by executors. 22. Notwithstanding anything in the said Act contained, it shall be lawful for any Resident Magistrate having jurisdiction in any licensing district within which any application under this section may be made to grant to the bolder of an existing publican’s license an extension thereof to sell and dispose of alcoholic liquors at any volunteer encampment races fair games regatta rowing matches cricket grounds theatre music hall or other places of public amusement for any period not exceeding seven days, subject to any special conditions which such Resident Magistrate may in each case attach to such permission.. In like manner any such Resident Magistrate may on any occasion of a public ball dinner or other festivity, permit any house or premises to be kept open for the sale of liquor for any period after the usual hour for closing such house or premises, but not later than twelve o’clock at night. In any case where such an extension shall have been granted, tho person obtaining tho same shall pay a foe of pounds to tho Resident Magistrate, who shall forward the same to the Provincial Treasurer to be by him received and dealt with as other fees for licenses arc authorised to bo dealt with under the said Act. 29. Tho Chief.Oflicer of Police in every district shall obtain and furnish to tho Clerk of the Licensing Court in each licensing district, at least ten days before each quarterly meeting, a report of every licensed house in such district, and as to applications for new houses or new applications for old houses, as soon after the application as possible ; such report to contain a description of the conditions of the house premises and furniture, the manner in which the house has been conducted during

the past twelve months, the character of the persons frequenting the house, and a statement of the number locality and distance of other licensed houses in the neighborhood. In the case of applications for new houses and new applications for old houses, and of transfers of licenses, it shall be the duty of the Clerk to the Licensing Court to search the register to be kept by him as hereinafter provided, and upon the consideration of such application to report to the Court whether the applicants, or, in case of transfers, whether the intended transferees, have previously applied for any licenses, or have been intended transferees of licenses, together with the result of such applications respectively, and in ease of the refusal or rejection thereof, then the cause of such rejection or refusal. At the quarterly meetings of Licensing Courts, the applications for new houses shall take precedence, the new applications for old houses shall be taken next, and the rest of the business shall follow. The Clerks to the Licensing Courts shall give notice to applicants applying for a renewal of their licenses, when such licenses have been objected to under the said Act or this Act, to attend at the meeting, and such applicants shall be heard immediately after the applications for new houses, and in such notices the Clerks to the Licensing Courts shall state the nature of the objections. On any application for a license for a new house, the applicant shall produce to and deposit with the Clerk, for the information of the Court, plans of such house, and the Court may require the applicant to give such explanation thereof by skilled witnesses as it shall think fit. At any licensing meeting the Court shall hear and determine all applications, and also all objections which may be made to such applications, on such evidence as shall seem to it sufficient, whether the same be strictly legal evidence or not; and for the purposes aforesaid the Court may summou and examine on oath all witnesses and other persons as it shall deem necessary; and, subject as aforesaid, the evidence, if any, shall be given in the same manner as in Courts of law. No applications that have been decided at any licensing meeting shall be re-opened at an adjourned meeting, unless in pursuance of leave granted at the original hearing. On the hearing of any application, except for renewals, the applicant by himself or his counsel or solicitor, shall open his case, then the objectors who have given due notice are to be heard by themselves or their counsel or solicitor, and the applicant may reply. In the case of applications for renewal, the objectors shall commence and the applicant shall reply only. The Licensing Court shall then consider the application, and, if unanimous, shall give their decision through its Chairman, but if not it shall decide by vote (retiring to a private room if necessary) whether the license shall be granted or refused. The decision, and all the remarks made thereon, shall be given through the Chairman ; and the other members of the Court shall not comment upon the decision announced or the remarks made by the Chairman. In case of an equality of votes the Chairman of the Court shall have a casting vote in addition to his original vote ; and such Chairman shall, on behalf of the Court, sign all certificates and other documents, if any, issued or recorded by it. The decision of the Court, when once announced by the Chairman, shall not be , questioned or reconsidered. No objection in respect of the character of any applicant shall be entertained unless notice has been given to the applicant; and should any such objection appear to the Court to be frivolous, the costs occasioned by any such objection shall be ordered by the Court to be paid by the party making the same ; Provided that no such costs shall be given against any officer of Police who shall have made any such objection. No objection from any officer of police shall be entertained unless the nature of the objection shall have been stated in the report of the chief officer of Police; and no objection of any kind shall be entertained unless notice thereof shall have been given in the terms of the said Act and this Act. 31. If any person shall, in any proceedings before any Licensing Court, or upon any examination before any such Licensing Court, wilfully and corruptly give any false evidence, such person shall be deemed and taken to be guilty of perjury. 34. A record of all applications made to the Licensing Courts showing the names of the applicants, the nature of the applications, the premises in respect of which the applications are made, the date on which the application was heard, and the manner in which the same was disposed . of, including in case of a refusal the cause thereof, shall be kept by the Clerk of each Licensing Court. 37. Notwithstanding anything contained in the said Act or in any Act or Ordinance incorporated or read therewith, it shall be lawful for the Minister of Public Works for the time being, or any Minister acting for him, to grant to such person as he may think fit a license to sell and dispose of alcoholic liquors by retail in any rooms or buildings attached to or connected with any railway station, or any railway constructed under the authority of “ The Immigration and Public Works Act, 1870,” or any Acts amending the same or construed therewith. Every such license may be in such form and shall he granted upon such terms and conditions as the said Minister shall think fit, and may be revoked by him upon any breach of such conditions.