TEETOTAL LEGISLATION IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 302, 7 May 1896, Page 11

TEETOTAL LEGISLATION IN ENGLAND.

The English Licensed Victuallers' Gazette has the following interesting particulars concerning trade items before the English Parliament: — “ The Liquor Traffic Local Veto (Scotland) Bill is Mr Peter McLagan’s time-honoured measure, which proposes on the requisition of not less than one-tenth of the householders, that one of three resolutions may be adopted by a bare majority, viz.:—l. That the sale of alcoholic drinks be prohibited. 2. That the number of licenses be reduced. 3. That no more licenses be granted. There is no compensation, monetary or time, offered; but, nevertheless, it is a well-known fact that if the decision rested with the Scottish members alone, this dishonest measure would be passed by a large majority. Fortunately for our friends in Scotland, however, English members have a finger in the pie, and, therefore, if they be well whipped up, the Bill should be ignominously rejected on the motion for its second reading. “Another Bill, not a teetotal measure, but one which more nearly concerns the wholesale than the retail trade, that has attained a most favourable position, is the Beer Adulteration Bill, brought in by Mr Quilter and his friends, which stands as the first order of the day for Wednesday, March 25. It proposes to enact that every person who sells or exposes for sale, by wholesale or retail, any beer brewed from any ingredients other than hops, or malt from barley, shall keep conspicuously posted at the bar, or other place where such beer is sold, a notice stating what other ingredients are contained in such beer. Penalties of £5 for the first, and of £2O for any subsequent offence, half of which is to go to the informer, are to be inflicted for non-compliance with the proposed enactment. We have no doubt that the Country Brewer’s Society will be equal to the emergency of securing the rejection of the Bill, which, to be just and logical, ought to apply equally to manufacturers of pork pies, sausages, and other ‘ mysteries.’ Among other Bills affecting the Trade which have been introduced, but have but a poor prospect of being discussed, is Mr Broadhurst’s Licensing Acts Amendment Bill, the object of which is to abolish what is known as the tiedhouse system, ‘ by which tenants of licensed houses are compelled to purchase the goods sold by them from the owners or lessees of their houses.’ There is no doubt that in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire there is a strong feeling in favour of the Bill among licence-holders, but in other parts of the country, and especially in the metropolis, there is a very luke-warm feeling on the subject, and little interest is taken as to whether the Bill passes or not. As a matter of fact, however, it has scarcely a chance of even being debated, inasmuch as it is the last order for Wednesday next. “ Immediately preceding it on that day (4th March) is the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors (Ireland) Bill, the provisions of which are the same as passed by the Select Committee in the Session of 1888, and reported to the House. Its object is to compel the closing at nine o clock on Saturday night, and during the whole of Sunday, of all places for the sale of alcoholic drinks in Dublin, Belfast, and the other towns exempted by Parliament in 1878 from the operations of the Irish Sunday Closing Act. Whether owing to an oversight on the part of the central organisations of the Trade in the metropolis, or to the fact that the Bill was brought forward last session on the day the late Speaker’s daughter was led to the hymenial alter by Mr Maguire, the intimate friend of Mv Cecil Rhodes and Dr Jim, this Bill, greatly to the disgust of our friends on the other side of St. George’s Channel, and especially Mr P. J. Lennox, 8.A., the able and esteemed secretary of the Dublin Licensed Grocers and Vintners’ Protection Association, was read the second time by an overwhelming majority, and

committed to the Standing Committee on Trade, from which awkward predicament, from the Trade’s point of view, it was released by the dissolution of Parliament. There is but little likelihood of the Bill being similarly dealt with this session, thanks to the energy of Mr Lennox, who, possibly taking a lesson from the past, last week came to London and succeeded in inducing Mr McCartan, Mr Michael Austin, Mr Doogan, Mr William Redmond, and Mr Patrick McHugh to block the Bill.