The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3873, 15 December 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1883.

The application of Mrs John Young, the widow of tho late Mr Young, of tho Terminus Hotel, Port Ahun'ri, for tho continuation of the license in her name disclosed a curious oversight in the Act at the adjourned quarterly meeting of the Licensing Committee yesterday. The regular quarterly meeting of the Committee lapsed last Friday week for want of a quorum, but had that net been the caso it would have been optional with the Committee to have granted or refused an application for the continuance of tho license. Section 09 of tm. Act runs as follows :—"ln tho case of the decease of a licensed person before the expiration of his license, his widow, or, if ho shall not havo left a widow, any member of liis family of tho age of twenty-one years, or any person on behalf of such family, may, if specially authorised in writing by tho Chairman or any two members of the Licensing Committee, cany on the business of such licensed person until the next quarterly meeting of the Licensing Committee, and no longer. At such next quarterly meeting the Licensing Committee may authorise such widow or other person to carry on tho business of such licensed person for :i further period, not exceeding three months,' if probate of the will of the deceased, or administration of his estate shall not be sooner granted, or his license sooner expire." If thoLiccnsingCommittee had sat on the appointed day Mrs Young's application would havo been made under tho provisions of thoabo veclausc of the Act, and it would seem that it would havo been optional with the Committee to have refused it. In Mrs Young's case no possible objection to a continuation of the license could havo been raised ; but we can imagine a case in which, perhaps, it would havo boon the duty of a Committee to have refused such an application, and to havo called upon the ajmlicant to nominate some approved person to carry on the business on her behalf. Owing to the want of a quorum the Committee's meeting was adjourned for a week, and in tho interval Mrs Young obtained probate of tho will of her late husband. At the adjourned meeting yesterday she was therefore enabled to apply to the Committee under section 102 of the Act, and this section, which allows no option to the Committee, is as follows :—"Every license under this Act shall confer upon the executor or administrator, assignee or trustee, the same privileges and (if such executor or administrator, assignee or trustee, avail himself of such privileges) shall impose on him the same duties, obligations, and liabilities as if such license had been granted to him originally." As avc said before, wo can imagine cases in which nothing could be more injudicious than for a Licensing Committee to allow n widow to .carry on a publican's business on the death of her husband. It will be seen, however, that as soon as probate of tho will is granted, the administrator, executor, assignee, or trustee, as the case may be, possesses the license without respect of iitucss ( for the business. Such a clause in tho Act j is obviously at variance with the whole in- i tention of the law.

Tm: North Otago Times is heartily glad that the revenue promises to fall short of the estimates,. Jt shows, says our Mark

Tapley contemporary, that tho villanous system of tax, tax, and spend, spend which has been so long in vogue in connection with the public affairs of this country 34as at last reached its utmost limit. And ie is supremely satisfactory to know that a thing which is unspeakably bad can become no worse. It is satisfactory to know, too, that public men will be compelled to learn the one lesson necessary to the country's salvation, but which they have shown no capacity to learn under any other circumstances. For the present and for a considerable time may rest assured the limit of the country's power to pay taxes has been reached. This means that the limit of its power to borrow with safety and sanity has also been reached, for to go in for more borrowing simply means that more taxation will be rendered necessary, and more taxation the country cannot stand; in fact, events show that it will not yield tho taxes. Intelligently considered these facts mean that tho public expenditure must inevitably be reduced ; that expenditure on railways not certain to pay like the Otago Central, and on unnecessary public buildings like tho Oamaru postoffice and custom-house and the Dunedin railway station, must be checked absolutely, and that the cost of the civil service must be largely reduced. The fringe of this matter was touched last session by that Bayard of politicians and patriots, Major Atkinson. When delivering his last financial statement that estimable person remarked that it was evident •' we must either decrease our expenditure or increase our revenue." The former of course was not to bo thought of by the leader of a Houso all of whoso members depend upon log-rolling for their political existence: and so it was determined to increase the revenue. The country's response to _)n8 patriotic resolution is seen in tho revenue returns. These aro what unreflecting observers call gloomy. For ourselves we call them brilliant in tho extreme on account of the lesson they bear.