LICENSING- COURT.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1822, 4 November 1874, Page 2

LICENSING- COURT.

The first quarterly Licensing Court under the amended Act of 1874 for tho districts of Thames and Hauraki will be held at the Court House, Shortland, on Tuesday, tho Ist day of December, at noon. The Act provides that Licensing Courts shall be held on the days and at the hour mentioned. Section 6 #l clause IV states that "Every Licensing Court shall hold its meetings in the Court House used as a Court House by the Resident Magistrate or Court of Petty Sessions in the licensing district, or if there be no such Court House in such district, then the Court shall hold its meeting at such place as may from time to time be appointed by the Governor." As the chairman and members of the Licensing Court cannot be in two places at one and the same time we presume the business for tht Hauraki District will be transacted after that for the Thames has been disposed of. ; The new Act is not very widely known, especially that portion of bearing upon the business to be transacted at , quarterly Licensing Courts, so we give the following clauses for general information :—

13. On the first Tuesday at noon, in the months of December, March, June and September, in each year, there shall be holden ia 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 for 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 Cpurt for the district in which the premises in re-? spect of which such application is made arc situated: Provided that after the end of the present year a license for any House that has not been previously, licensed shall be granted only at the quarterly

licensing meetings to beheld in the month of June of each year. 14. The Clerk of the Licensing Court in every licensing, district at which.any quarterly licensing meeting is to be hold, shall, one calendar month ab least before the holding of such meeting, cause a notice thereof lo bo fixed to the outer door of every Court House within the licensing district, whether the same be a Court House where meetings of the Licensing Court are held or not, -end. shall also causo an advertisement of the time and place of holding such licensing meeting to be inserted at least thrice, in at least one newspaper circulating in the district.

15. Every person who shall desire to obtain a publican's license tinder the said Act nt any quarterly licensing meeting, shall, at least twenty-one days before such meeting, deliver in duplicate, to the Clerk of the Licensing Court at .which such 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 tenhouseholders 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 eighteenth 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 overy Court House as aforesaid, there to remain until the day whereon the licensing meeting shall ha held. The following clause of the Act refers to transfers :—

19. If any holder of a license (except a wholesale license, s brewer's license, or a packet license) shall desire to transfer his license to any other person, he shall, in the manner provided in section fifteen of this .Act, deliver in duplicate a notice in writing, in the form in the Schedule hereto marked E, 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 on© 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.

Under clause 15 it is necessary for all applications to be lodged with the Clerk of the Licensing Court at least twentyone days before the holding of the Licensing Court, the issue of which is regulated by the following :—

22. All certificates authorising the issue of any license which shall or may ba granted at any quarterly licensing meeting under this Act in the month of June in any year, shall entitle the.holders thereof to the license mentioned in such certificate, and such license shall be dated oa the first day of July next ensuing to the granting of such certificate, or if the first day of July fall on a Sunday, then on the second day of July; and all licenses issued at any other time of the year shall be dated on the first day of the month next following that in which the certificate authorising the issue of such license shall hare been granted, or if the first day of such month be a Sunday, then on the second day of such month ; and all such licenses, whenever issued, shall have effect on after the date thereof respectively, and shall remain in force till the first day of July then next following, unless forfeited in the meantime under the provisions of the said Act or any Act or Ordinance incorporated or read therewith.

23. The fees payable for such licenses shall be as follows, that is to say— (1.) 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. (2.) For all licenses dated on the first or second day of October in any year, three-fourths of the license -'"' fees prescribed as aforesaid. (3.) For all licenses dated on the first or second day of December ia any year, one-half of the license fees prescribed as aforesaid. (4.) And for all licenses dated on the first or second day of April in any year, one-fourth of the license fees prescribed as aforesaid : Provided that tho Legist lature of any province may from time to time alter or vary the fees payable under this section in such manner and to such ex- . tent as may be thought fit.'