LICENSING ACT, 1874.

Dunstan Times, Issue 648, 18 September 1874, Page 2

LICENSING ACT, 1874.

It will no doubt interest hotel-keepers to know that the Licensing Act, 1873, Amendment Act, 1874, contains the following clause:—“On tho Ist Tuesday, at noon, in the months of December, March, June, and September in each year there shall be holdcn in each Licensing District, a meeting of tho Licensing Court appointed for each district, to be called ‘ tbc Quarterly Licensing Meeting,’ for tbo purpose of taking into consideration all applications for certificates for sucb license as by tbo said Act (1873) are authorised to be granted by Licensing Courts, and the transfer or renewal of such licenses, of winch due notice shall bavo been given to the Clerk of the Licensing Court for tho district in which tho promises in respect of which such application is made are situated. Provided that after the end of the present year a license for any house that has not been previously licensed shall he granted only at the Quarterly Licensing Meetings to ho held in the month of Juno of each year.” Power is also given to remove tho business from one house to another, and provision is made for the sale and purchase of places during the existence of the license. For a permit on the occasion of a hall, public dinner, or other festivity, a fee not less than ss, nor more than L2 is payable. Another useful provision is that prohibiting the employment of any female other than the licensee, or wife, or daughter in any bar for a longer period than ton hours in each day of twenty-four hours ; and no such female is to be employed in tho bar ofany licensed house before eleven o’clock in the forenoon, or after the hour of clven past meridian. The penalty for breach of this clause not to exceed L2O. The engaging of dance girls is rendered illegal, and any premises in which such dancing is carried on is to be deemed a disorderly house; and if convicted, the licensee is liable to a penalty of L2O for the first offence ; LSO for the second ; and forfeiture of his license for the third. Persons giving false evidence before, tbo Licensing Court are deemed guilty of perjury and any person wilfully insultingthe Chairman, or any member of the I.ioeiif ing Court,

renders himself liable to a penalty not exceeding L2O. Holders of public-house licenses may have more than one bar by paying a fee for each additional bar, at the rate of one-third ofjthe 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 exist. This Licensing Act, of 1874, contains fortylive sections ; but the above-reviewed sections are those which mostly affect upcouutry hotel-keepers.