LICENSES ON THE SOUTH-WEST GOLD FIELDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1379, 31 December 1872, Page 4

LICENSES ON THE SOUTH-WEST GOLD FIELDS.

[WESTPORT TIMES.] Heretofore the Licensing Ordinance has been, like our mining rules, subject to discretionary interpretation, and it has been notorious that licenses for so-called "hotels'' have been obtainable by almost any one making application, of howsoever doubtful antecedents, to occupying the merost apology for hotel premises. The why and wherefore has been "plain as way to parish church ;" the Provincial revenues needed constant replenishment, and proferred license fee 3 were willingly taken howsoever much public honor and public morality were jeopardised. Nor will better things prevail now even though a new ordinance has been specially adopted to meet glaring evils. Rather than the revenue should suffer, the baneful influence of too many drink houses will be aa freely granted to all comers, and for every class of premises as before, except the public themselves bestir in the matter. Hotels, properly 80-called, are in themselves a necessity, a convenience, nay, almost a blessing, to a great proportion of our colonial population, and hence it is the more important to the well-being of society, that they should be properly conducted, and a strong deterrent infiuI ence brought to bear against an excess of licenses embarking in a trade that becomes a festering evil in proportion as the supply exceeds legitimate demands. Take Westport and its environs for instance. Can anyone' reasonably argue that within a radius of barely three miles there exists a necessity for twenty or more licensed houses, or that the majority of the occupiers thereof might not, with profit to themselves, and credit to the community, fulfil some more honorable employment than that of mere tapsters, waiting and watch H ing day by day for unwary customers? Half the number o! hotels, and those alone of the better sort, would be ample for all present or probable requirements. The Provincial governing powers will do nothing to lessen the evil, either here or in any other portion of the Province. The subordinatas in office have one standing order — Get revenue honestly if you can, but got it ! The remedy rests in the action of the public themselves, more especially the tiading community. Let a stop be put to the credit system upon which the lower grade of " hotels" exist, and the keepers thereof will perforce close their doors, and haply betake thempelves to more industrious callings. In contradistinction to the loose licensing system prevailing in Nelson Province, an example might be taken from the Dunedin system now in force, were the licenses granted by free agents. Referring thereto the Witiwss says :— " The members of the Licensing Bench, adjudicating on the numerous applications for licenses made to them, deserve the thanks of the community for the firmneaa and discrimination they displayed. Thanks to them, the city is, for , a time at least, freed from the baneful influence of a number of licensed dens of wickedness. Such places as one or two of the 'hotels' that were refused licenses are festering sores in a town, and ought to be put down with a strong hand. It is, moreover, at once an incentive to a man to keep his licensed house properly, and an indication that he is doing so, when licenses are ■ granted only under certain rigorous conditions as to accommodation and respectability."