The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1882.

Kumara Times, Issue 1685, 22 February 1882, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1882.

The election of the Licensing Committee for the Borough of Kumara is now over, and it may not be out of place to say that the choice of the i-atepayers has fallen upon gentlemen who are likely, as a whole, to work well together, aiid to devote sufficient time to the consideration of the business they have taken in hand to perform. And this may be said without disparagement to those who failed to poll a sufficient number of votes to give them a place on the Committee. Those who al'G elected must not for a moment consider that their duties Commence on the first i licensing day, and end with the close of the sitting. It will be positively necessary for each of them to study not only the Licensing Act which has recently sprung into existence, but also in give' some attention to the laws which immediately preceded it, and for various reasons. The changes, and they are very many, which have been made in the licensing laws are not to the uninitiated apparent in the new Act. It will therefore be necessary to carefully compare the old laws with the new ones. Some of the changes about to V.e carried out are doubtless such as will bear hardly on the publican who has been accustomed to hold a license merely fur dispensing intoxicating liquors, and who will consider it an outrage of a most decided character for any wayworn traveller to request that a meal may be plac- d before him, and that his horse may be taken to the stable (which does not exist). Others, again, may think it utterly monstrous to be forced to find sleeping accommodation, after being accustomed to turn out of their houses, whenever it suited their convenience, any pet son or per- | sons who might have been induced to drink more than wits good for them, leaving them to find beds as best they might. To such publicans as these the new Act may, and will appear something terrible, as removing them from the category of mere licensed grog-sellers. But, on the other hand, it must be borne in mind that very serious injustice will in some cases be inflicted ; take, for iu stance, the cases of those

wlio at a very large expenditure, often of every farthing of available en pit al, have been induced to erect in c mnection with their licensed houses, extensive buildings for theatrical performances, concerts, and generally for the recreation of the public. How will such persons manage to exist under the new Act if it is not strictly enforced 1 The simple fact is that thev will be completely ruined. But it is not alone they who will suffer. All those, in this district at all events, who in common with persons in the rest of the colony are desirous of enjoying some little relaxation from the labors of the day in the form of some public entertainment, will be debarred from so doing, and the residents upon the goldfields will in reality become what they have so often been accused of being—a distant class, altogether apart from the rest of the colony. It must indeed be a matter of surprise to all thinking men who h r «ve read the Licensing Act that it could have passed through in its present form without protest from some member or other, for it must positively have been known to some of them that the 128th section is a most monstrous iniquity. It may be suggested to the Licensing Committee, that, after considering the probable results of the working of the Act, it would not be amiss to make representations to the Government as to any amendments they might think it advisable to make, and thus ohviate the necessity of those members whose excess of modesty deterred them from expressing opinions upon a measure which was in one form or another, before the Assembly nearly the whole of last session, of speaking upon a subject they may know something about.