TIMARU LICENSING COMMITTEE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2798, 11 September 1883, Page 3

TIMARU LICENSING COMMITTEE.

j An adjourned meeting of the Timaru Licensing Committee was held yesterday, at the Courthouse. Present— Messrs E. G. Kerr (Chairman), E. G. Stericker, J. Jackson, W. 0. Beswick, and H. Cain. GBO3VEHO3 HOTBL. The Chairman said th« Cammittee had met to giro their decision on the application inido list Monday by Mr J. D. Kett, licensee of the Grosvenor Hotel, for an extension of his license from 11 p.m. till 12 o'clock. Mr Kett, m makirg the application, bad pointed out that his house was frequented mostly by commercial men and strangers tisitii g Timaru, and that many of them complained of not being able to play billiardi after 11 o'clock. The Committee , were aware the Qroßvfnor Hotel supplied good accommodation for the travelling public! and was woll conducted, and was entitled to any concession the Committee could give it. Tln-y considered the clause m the Licensing Act prohibiting even the licensee himeelf playing billiards after 11 o'clock was absurd and not at all csleulated to decrease the amount of drinking. They were, however, not tho makers of the law, but the administrators of it, and although a hardship appeared to be inflicted tbey were not prepared to meet tbat hardship by going back to twelve o'clock licenses. If a twelve o'clock license were granted to the Grosvenor Hotel, there were other houiei m town that would be entitled to a like extension. The Bench had unanimously decided to set their faces against midnight license!, beli«ving that 11 o'clock was late enough for any hotel to be open to the public They also considered it a toi<(ate that Licensing Committees had power to grant licenses after 11 o'clock, as that power had been very unjustly used m lereral towns m the calony. For the reasons given, Mr Kelt's application would be refused. Mr Kett eairt he did not care very muoh about the extension of the license id itself, it was having to close the billiard-rcora that annoyed him. He had scarcely expected the Committee would grant his application, but he thought some good might bo done by having public attention drawn to the arbitrary clause m the Act referring to billiard-rooms m connection wirh hotel?. He thought such a law was only fit for a penal settlement. One of the members of the House of Representatives (Mr Reynolds) had stayed at theGrosvenor Hotel a few nights ago, and he *aid it was probable tho clause refered to would be repealed during the nnxt session of Parliament. Ho would auk the Bench whether the billiard-roum c >uld be kept open after eleven o'clock if the present communicating door with the hotel wns bricked up. The Chairman said the question was, to some extent, a legal one. If the billiard- | room were cu'. off fr>m the hotel by what the law culled a " structural severance," il ceased to bo part of the licensed premises, and, of course, was outside tho operation of the Licensing Act. This, however, was a i matter the Committee had nothing to do with. While the billiurd-room remained a pnrt of the licensed premises, the law, however arbitrary, would have to be compiled wilb. This closed the business, and the Committee adjourned.