ANNUAL LICENSING MEETING.

Evening Star, Issue 3482, 21 April 1874, Page 2

ANNUAL LICENSING MEETING.

The first meeting of the new Licensing Bench, constituted under the Act of 1873, was held in the Resident Magistrate’s Court at noon to-day. There were on the Bench—Mr John Bathgate, R.M., chairman; and Messrs A. C. Strode, James Fulton, and W. Mason, Commissioners. The attendance of the public was unusually large, the Court and its approaches being crowded. On the: Commissioners taking their seats, Mr Bathgate spoke as follows : In opening for the first time the Licensing Court, established under the provisions of the Licensing Act of last session, a few remarks on the subject may be deemed advisable. Important changes in the law have been made.

1. A permanent Court, consisting of the Resident Magistrate and three Commissioners, appointed by the Government, has been constituted for the granting of licenses. Such a Court will tend to preserve a uniformity in their decisions, and the proceedings will be free from the uncertainty attending a Court of the fluctuating nature of one composed of the Justices of the Peace.. It will be no longer possible to allege—as has at times been done- that the Court has been packed to carry out special views, either one way or the other. 2. Full power is conferred on the Court to grant or refuse any certificate in its discretion ; and the Court is to judge whether, in its opinion, there is a necessity for the publichouse for which application is made. 3. The police are required to be present at the Court and report to the Court on the conduct of every licensed house and upon the accommodation provided. i. Two-thirds of the adult residents in a district may memorialise against the granting of any certificate. The power is thus placed in the hands of the people themselves to shut up any house not wanted, and in order to give this provision of the Act fair play, the area of the districts has been limited.

5. Any householder within the district may appear in person and state objections to the granting or renewal of any license applied for. 6. The provisions in the Provincial jOrdinances in regard to accommodation and other matters are not repealed. The present law is to be read as part of any existing Ordinance, but no clause in such Ordinance shall be valid if in conflict with the provisions of the new Act.

The purpose of these laws being to regulate the liquor traffic, it is the duty of the Court to administer the law fairly and equitably, avoiding everything which may savor of the enforcement of extreme views. The Court recognizes that the law admits the necessity of such a traffic, and all that will be aimed at will be to prevent abuse of the privilege of the sale of intoxicating liquor, to take care that the traffic is kept under proper control, and to lessen the temptation to the weak, the reckless, and the improvident by restricting the number of licensed houses strictly to what is found to be necessary for the reasonable accommodation of the public. It will be the duty of the Court to protect the respectable portion of the licensed

victuallers who may have invested considerable capital in supplying accommodation for the use of the public, so long as their business is conducted in a proper and regular manner; and at the same time to deal rigorously with those who encourage drunkenness, gambling, prostitution, or crime, either directly or indirectly. In order that the principles which will regulate the decision of the Court may be fully known, I will conclude by giving a summary of them.

1. The accommodation prescribed in the Provincial Ordinance to be rigidly required. 2. The law as regards Sunday traffic to be declared to be operative. Any infringement will operate to prevent renewal. 3. Unnecessary competition to be discouraged by the refusal or withdrawal of licenses where the accommodation is apparently not required.

4. No license to be granted to an unmarried man, unless in exceptional cases. The law assumes that licensed houses are for the benefit of travellers. No house for the use of travellers can be properly conducted unless under the management of a matron. 5, Licenses to be granted to widows only in very exceptional cases. . licensee who may be reported as showing incivility or refusing to give information to the police, or as keeping a dirty house, or allow-

ing disorderly conduct on his premises, or being intoxieated himself, will be refused a renewal. 7. Any licensee permitting gambling on ms premises will be refused a renewal. Now I may state that the character of a house will not save them if gambling has been carried on. I regret to state that in some houses of in Dunedin gambling is followed out, and dunng the last criminal sessions we saw, as the result, a fine young man’s prospects in life blasted, and himself sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment in consequence of gambling in a house in Dunedin apparently respectable.

8. A list of persons thrice convicted of drunkenness in one year will be made up by the police and supplied to licensees. Any licensee supplying such confirmed drunkards with liquor will be refused a renewal.

9. Licensees allowing prostitutes to assemble or meet other persons on their' premises will be refused a renewal.

10. No license shall be granted to or renewal givep to any person who is the owner of houses let as brothels or to prostitutes.

11. The granting of bottle licenses will be conferred with great caution, and only in cases where the Court is satisfied there will be no abuse of the privilege. None of those shams about clapping a piece of tin foil on a bottle will be allowed now.

Guided by these principles, it is to be hoped that the decisions of the Court will in some degree tend- to bring under proper control a traffic which, as at present conducted, is undeniably productive of a largo proportion of the disease, prostitution, lunacy, and crime existing. No one can sit in this Court in the ordinary administration of the criminal law in this Court without being forcibly struck with the enormity of the' evils arising from the misuse of intoxicating drink. Still, it must,not be forgotten that it is in the hands of the public themselves to make the working of the Act thoroughly efficient. Every householder may object, and the inhabitants may negative the granting of a license independently of the Court. Further, it may be suggested that, in dealing with this matter, the remedy should not be wholly of a repressive nature. Other means should be employed to elevate the public tone. In addition to our schools and University," our Museum should be improved, a gallery of fine arts added, and a public library established, and places of public recreation should also be improved. An endeavor should be made to establish an inebriate asylum, for the reclamation of confirmed drunkards. It would cost less to society to maintain an in curable drunkard in such an institution than to go through the farce of convicting some thirty or forty times, as is done in some instances here.

Finally, it must be borne in mind that the Act is a tentative measure, and it will be for those interested to point out defects and suggest improvements. If any part of the machinery is imperfect, or the districts assigned too large, there is no doubt due attention will be paid to representations made to the proper quarter. Two points appear to deserve immediate consideration, viz., proper machinery to check adujteration, and a thorough system of supervision to prevent illegal traffic by special revenue officers of approved fidelity. WHOLESALE LICENSES. Licenses were granted to E. B. Cargill, David Baxter, Thomas Birch, Jas Finch, H, j! Gibbs, James Mackerras, Chas. Ziele, James Marshall, and James Wilson. In the case of Mr Finch, who did not appear, Mr Bathgate said the Bench granted the application, because they knew the applicant to be a respectable man, but in no case would a publican’s license be granted unless the party was present. In the matter of the applications of C. S. Beeves, P. C, Neil, B. B. Martin, W. Stavely, John Fargie, R. M. Robertson, B. Wilson, Hutton, VV, Scoular, C. Nichols, C. Burke, W. Strachan, F. Lewis, J. A. Walcott, P. C. Neill, G. Turnbull, and C. R. Howden, the Clerk (Mr Street) intimated that they had been put in too late. That of R, B, Martin was called on first.

Mr Haggitt, who appeared for Mr Martin, contended that although it was provided that applications for publicans’ and bush licenses should be lodged on a certain day, it was entirely unnecessary in the case of wholesale licenses. Had Mr Martin and the other gentlemen for whom he (Mr Haggitt) appeared thought it necessary to have put in their applications on the day named in section 13, they could easily have done so. If licenses were refused to these gentlemen, who had carried on a wholesale business ever since there had been licensing laws, serious evil would result. He thought the Court might contrive to put on the section the interpretation he had put upon it; and if they had any doubt, to intimate that in future applications would have to be lodged in the manner publicans’ applications required to be.

Mr Harris, who appeared in several of the cases, said he could not conscientiously adopt the language of his learned friend. Ho submitted that there had been great want of publication of the Act, which fact should have considerable weight with the Bench. He hoped the Bench would not too stringently read the Act, seeing that the only omission was want of notice, which could not affect the public. Mr Bathgate : The Court is undoubtedly the

creature of the statute, and our powers are defined therein. Can you suggest any means of getting over the difficulty staring us in the face ? However, we will reserve the cases and consider the ppints raised. The Clerk reported that the applications of John Mitchell, Robert Cadzow,, and Henry Fairbank, for publican’s licenses, and William White, H. Steinmetz, J. H. Attwood, J, Fargie, and R. M. Robertson, for bottle licenses, had been received too late, Mr Bathgate: These applications cannot be entertained. The law is quite imperative. Not only must the applicant lodge his application on or before the first Tuesday in the month of March, but the Clerk of the Court is required imperatively to carry out further proceedings. The public generally are entitled, according to the spirit and letter of the Act, to know who are the applicants, and the Clerk of the Court

is bound, at a particular time, to publish a list of those applications, so that any applicant for a publican’s license not putting in his application in time clearly defeats the purposes of the Act; and unless the Clerk is in a position to publish the list in terms of the Act, the public are defrauded, as it were, of the right which the Act gives them to lodge memorials from the adult residents of the district, objecting to the granting of the license. The Act does not say “may,” but that the applicant “shall” lodge, &c. These names not having been published, the Court is of opinion that the applications cannot be entertained. . Harris ; Will your Worships take them into consideration along with the already adjourned cases? Mr Bathgate : We are quite clear that the Act leaves no loop-hole. However, we will take the cases into consideration along with the others, and decide finally when we decide them. Let it be understood that the whole of the late applications are reserved for further consideration.

_ NORTH EAST VALLEY. The applications of Thomas Brown, William Fraser, and John Murdoch, for publicans’ licenses in the North-east Valley were granted. Alexander King applied for a bottle license. The Commissioner of Police, in answer to the Bench, said ho did not see that the application was required for tke accommodation of the public. There was a public house on each side of the place; and the district was a thinlypopulated one.—Mr Bathgate : The Court is unanimous in refusing this application. BLUESKIN, The application of John Sounness, Waitati hotel, was granted. David Carey applied for a license for the Blueskm Hotel.—-The Commissioner of Police

stated that the applicant had the other day put the police to great trouble, he and his father threatening to throw out of the house a dead body that lay there awaiting burial after a coroner’s inquest.—Mr Bathgate told the appli-

cant that he had put himself into an awkward position by refusing to assist the police in discharging a disagreeable duty. It must be understood by every license-holder that the traffic in {drink was to some extent exceptional, and could only be allowed to be carried on if they rendered every assistance in their power to the police.—The applicant, in explanation, made a charge of incivility against the police sergeant, which the Commissioner said would be immediately investigated, if formally laid.—Mr Bathgate said the Bench, through the appli cant’s conduct, would not operate against him now; but cautioned him if complaint were again made, he would not obtain a renewal. License granted. The consideration of the application of George Neale for a house at Carey’s Bay, to be called the Crescent Hotel, was adjourned, because the house was not yet completed. PORTOBELLO.

Mr Stout appeared to support Nicholas J. Coney s application, which was objected to by Mr James Seaton, on the grounds that three of the signatures to the schedule accompanying the application were not those of householders in the district, thus reducing the number to seven, wnile the Act required there should be ten ; and that there was no necessity for a second public-house in the district. Mr Seaton said, amidst much laughter, that although it might appear sellish on his part, he considered the only house suitable for the purpose was the one he had applied for.— Mr J. H. Harris said he was in a position to state that the house previously occupied by Coneys, and now applied for by Seaton, could not meet the requirements of the district, and

that it would be for the accommodation of visitors from Dunedin if Coneys’a house were licensed.— Mr Bathgate: The Court is of opinion that this case is somewhat exceptional, and that Portobello being a much frequented watering-place, the probability is that additional accommodation may be required for the public. Indeed it is understood that there has been a want of accommodation there. Taking everything into consideration, we are of opinion that the license ought to be granted. (There was an attempt at applause which" was immediately suppressed.) James Season applied for a license for his house, which was granted.—Mr Harris pointed out the impropriety of a J ; . P. obtaining a license; but Mr Bathgate said there was no statute disqualifying J.P.’s from holding licenses. PENINSULA. The application of W. H. Eyre, for a house at Shiel Hill township, was postponed, because the place was unfinished.

Hugh Boss applied for a license for the Anderson’s Bay Hotel —The Commissioner of Police mentioned that since the police had reported, a man named M'Phee had been picked up in a senseless state, resulting from exposure, and brought on by drinking, it was believed in this house. Should the man die—and he lay in the hospital in a precarious condition—an inquest would be held. He had bo objection to the application; only he asked that it should be adjourned until it was seen whether M‘Phee recovered or not. Adjourned accordingly. James H. Popham applied for a bottle license. Postponed.

OAVBRSHAM. • H. Arrow’s application for a license for the Crown Hotel was supported by Mr M Keay, and opposed by Mr Stewart on behalf of twenty-five residents, who memorialized against the granting of the license on account of the contiguity of the house to the Presbyterian Church, and because it was improperly conducted. A counter memorial signed by seventy-five persons, urging the Bench to re-license the house, was put in.—J. W. Eeger said the house was not requirsd, there being only a dozen houses on either side of it; it was badly conducted. He also said he had seen immigrants come out of the house drunk. John Todd deposed that he had seen persons come out of the house drunk on Sundays.— Mr E.eay called Sergeant Anderson, who said the house was well conducted; John Blair, who gave similar evidence ; and Hugh Oalder, owner of the ground on which the house stood, who said that the place bad never been better conducted.—Mr Bathgate said the negative testimony adduced had no weight against the positive testimony on the other side. Taking all. the circumstances into consideration, the situation of the house in respect to the Immigration Barracks, ajnd the positive testimony brought forward, the Court was unanimously of opinion that this certificate must be refused. William Goodison applied for a license for to e Plough Inn. Mr Harris stated that Goodison, who was absent from Dunedin, was

a bankrupt, but the license which, hid not yet been transferred had been purchased from the Provisional Trustee by one Armstrong.—Mr Bathgate: The Bench is of opinion that the application must be refused. The house is in bad repair.—License refused accordingly. Licenses were granted to Timothy Hayes, J. P. Jones, H. Mitchell, W. Paul, and Francis Porter; and a bottle license to Nicholas Maloney. The application of John Blair, Oaversham, for a bottle license, was opposed by Mr Stewart, on the ground that the applicant was keeper of the local post-office, and that such a license was unnecessary, because there was an hotel immediately opposite.—A large memorial in favor of the applicant was put in by Mr Stout. The application was refused. tip to four o’clock, at which hour the Court had only entered upon the Dunedin applications, licenses had been granted to M. Fogarty, Morniugton; W. J. Bunting, Kaikorai; W. Sheddan, Kaikorai Hill; Thos. Messer, Kaikorai ;J. J. Eagerty, Green Island. Licenses were refused to Eleanor Collins, Kaikorai; and L. Marshall, Kaikorai Valley.