PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Issue 3523, 8 June 1874, Page 3

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Monday, June 8.

The Goldfields Committee reported on the petition of 948 miners and others in re the Maerewhenna water case. (1.) That the Executive should, as indicated by the Provincial Secretary, get a case stated for the consideration of the Appeal Court, with a view to save the expenses attendant upo-i protracted litigation. (2.) That failing their being successful in. so doing, the Executive should take steps to defend the action on behalf of Howe and party. (3.) That, under any circumstances, the whoe question should be brought under the notice of the Colonial Government, with a view to the hardship complained of being removed, not only from the present petitioners, but to prevent similar cases arising in future. On Mr M‘Neils motion, the Council affirmed the desirability of a flying survey being made of a branch railway, from whatever point of the Southern trunk line might be thought desirable, to Gatlin’s river. In moving the following resolution standing in his name—“ That, in the opinion of this Council, the Licensing Laws at present in force in this Province should be amended in the following particulars, viz:—(1.) That provision should be made for the transfer of publican’s licenses between the times of the sittings of the Licensing Court. (2.) That provision should be made for opening publichouses on Sundays between the hours of ene and three in the afternoon, and eight a j id ten in the evening, but to that the bar doors be kept kept closed entirely on those days. (3) That a license having been once granted, personal application for the renewal of such license should not be necessary or required, unless notice of objection to the renewal thereof has been served on the Clerk, of the Court, and also on the licensee, a reasonable time before the sitting of the Licensing Court; and if no objection to the renewal of a license be so served, the license shall be renewed as a matter of course. (4) That the system of bottle licenses be discontinued, and that the minimum quantity of liquor of any description which may be sold under a wholesale license be reduced to one gallon.” Mr Hagoitt said his resolutions, with the exception of the fourth, involved no new principle. Speaking to the first, he pointed to the necessity of provision being made for the transfer of licenses between the licensing meetings. Hotel property could not be disposed of because of the absence of that provision. The Act of 1873 did away with the provision of the Ordinance of 1870 by which freeholders were prevented from being damnified by reason of their tenants leaving before their term or their licenses expired. The substitution of next licensing court” ior “quarterly licensing meeting” in the Ordinance would cure both of the defects referred to. Opening public-houses on Sundays was only a new principle, so far as legislation was concerned. It had been proved to be a necessity, and legislation bad failed to suppress it. In spite of the express provision in the Ordinance of 1865, Sanday hotel traffic ■was notorious. The inability to secure a single conviction, showed that public opinion was in favor of the publican. He did not desire that the clause in the Ordinance should he entirely repealed, but the wants of the public met. In England Sunday trading was allowed for six hours ; in Victom for five, and here it was proposed f°ur. Referring to the third resolution he said he considered it degrading to a respectaole man to be at the caprice of a licensing bench The law, aS'it at present stood, created such an uncertainty as to deteriorate materially the value of hotel property, and tended to discourage improvements. J he Provincial Solicitor moved, as an amendment -“That, iu the opinion of this Council, the licensing laws at present in force in this Province should be amended In the following particulars, viz • (1.) That provision should be made’for th<j

transfer of publicans’ and bottle licenses between the times of the sittings of the Licensing Court. (2.) That, in order to prevent the undue creation’of vested interests in the liquor traffic, no new publican’s license should be granted in any district, until a memorial, signed by a majority of the adult residents in the district, be presented to the Licensing Court, the genuineness of the signatures to the memorial being verified, as. provided for by section 23 of “ The Licensing Act, 1873.” The second part of the amendment was accepted by Mr Haggitt. The Provincial Solicitor opposed the abolition of bottle licenses, and said he saw no necessity for Sunday beer traffic. [Left sitting.]