The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2602, 20 June 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1871.

Instance upon instance might be given shewing that our present licensing system is very much abused. Like every other plan in which men have the power - of granting or withliolding privileges to their fellows, they are

liable to bo Nayed by interested motives, or erroneous judgment. Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than the way in which licenses are granted to inns Or public houses. No matter how conscientiously one magistrate may be inclined to act, his judgment is liable to be overruled by a packed bench, or blinded by an array of names in favor of or against granting a license to a particular house. Then many elements have to be imported into the consideration, evidence regarding each of which must necessarily be of the most meagre description. By iaw the house must contain a certain number of rooms and offices, and the intended proprietor must be a man of reliable character and respectability. The first of these requisites is easily got over, and testimony as to the second is always obtainable. In fact it is very much to the honor of human nature that while numbers are easily found to help a man on in life, very few,will be found to say a word, publicly, even ' against the-character of a bitter enemy, likely to throw ah impediment in the way of his making a Jiving. In addition to all these elements tending to disguise the real nature of the case, there is one peculiar hardship that very often crops up. A capitalist expends a large sum of money in building a house replete with room and convenience in the hope of obtaining a license for his house; he complies to the tittle with every requirement of the law, and then on presenting his claim to the licensing bench, ho is refused. His money lies dead, and he is either obliged to convert the premises to some other use or to go on to another licensing period, fraternising and coquetting with the people of -the neighborhood to induce them to sign an influential recommendation that his license may be granted : while the man at the next corner is obliged to be equally industrious in canvassing for friends who will secure to him the fancied monopoly which seems likely to be broken in upon. Thus the very safeguards, with which the law has hedged the liquor trade by introducing uncertainty, tend to induce that demoralisation which they are intended to guard against. They tend to taint the purity of the magisterial bench, to party feuds amongst neighbors, and to a sort of unhealthy speculation in sites and buildings. Whoever has attended Court on licensing days may almost certainly arrive at the conclusion that some special case is to be considered, by the appearance of the Bench. Not only will there be those who arc ordinarily there to dispense justice, but a number will voluntarily put in an appearance who are never seen at other times, and whose mission is specially pro or con. They walk in, they take their seats, they sit with grave and earnest blows, and decide according to the purpose which they came to serve. It is not Otago nor New Zealand where this evil exists. Wherever, a licensing system similar to ours subsists, the same evils are experienced. We have imported it and the complimentary creation of J.P.’s from Home; in the latter case with the certainty that the honor when so widely distributed, must frequently be conferred upon unfit and incompetent persons. If then the system has been found to work badly at Home, where adverse influences are so diluted by admixture in large masses of population, how much worse must its effects prove wh6n concentrated in a sparsely peopled country like New Zealand. An attempf has been made at Home to introduce a system of certainty in licensing, which, if adopted, will in all probability do away with much of the jobbery and log-rolling, inseparable from tho present 1 plan. We cannot give more than a few of the features of Mi- Baucis's Bill, as proposed in the House of Commons, but they will indicate the direction of public thought regarding the necessity for improving the licensing system ; nor can we present them more briefly than in the following extract from the Weekly Scotsman :—- The chief prevision in the Bill is this—that Justices shall map out certain districts, settle the number of licenses to be granted for each, and then give those licenses on leases of ten years to the highest bidders or bidder. It would appear, though the fact will not be quite ascertained till we obtain the print of the Bill, that there will be a statutory minimum proportion of public-houses to population below which the Justices will not bo allowed to go. Doubt also exists in the meanwhile as to who is to beneiit by the revenue raised from licenses. The right thing would be to give any increase of revenue from that source , in relief of local taxation, On. tho other hand, Government will require some payment, as it is to provide a now and distinct police for the supervision of the' system. That, as we understand Mr Bruce, will be provided for by “a licencerate,” or annual payment levied by the Exchequer annually in addition to the price originally paid down for ten years’ license —any surplus to go to local purposes. What is meant is, we assume, two taxes —the price of tho license, to go to tho Exchequer, and au annual licence-duty, to go for extra police and other local purposes. The plan, as a whole, though it may not be the best, has much to recommend it, and is beyond all reasonable question immensely superior to tie existing system. It might have been 1 better to apply the Free-trade principle more Inlly; and, instead Of 'arbitrarily restricting

the number of houses in each district, to seek similar ends by putting a heavy tax on every house used for the sale of liquors -the heavier the tax, the dearer the commodity, and the fewer the dealers. But the principle is in the Bill, experiment may lead to its better application, and in the meanwhile it serves to • displace a system which has no principle at all. Vested interests are to be respected, to the: extent that present license-holders will be spared for ten years, and then have some sort of preference in the biddings for new leases. Mr. Bruce also hints at the possibility of the “local authorities” buying on! some of the present holders of licenses, and then selling the" licenses to the highest bidder. In all this, however, Mr. Bruce scorns somewhat to have overlooked the fact that there will be self-adjusting influences at work—that in all districts forfeitures will tend to decrease the number of public-houses and that in most districts the increase of population in ten years will restore the desired proportions where they may at present be exceeded. It will thus be seen that, unless Mr. Bruce has very imperfecily ox pressed himself, the new bill will not supplant the existing system, excepting' by a gradual process. The present houses, except in cases of misconduct, will remain undisturbed for ten years in cases where the Justices may decide that there are enough of public-houses already, and in cases where it is decided that more houses are required, the houses brougnt into existence under the new system will for ten years he only supplementary to those existing under the old.