LICENSING MATERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 6, 12 September 1879, Page 2

LICENSING MATERS.

♦ Pressure .on our space, and the bustle of election time, have hitherto prevented our remarking briefly upon the action of the Licensing Bench, in refusing to license the Awahuri Hotel, and Bellve's new hotel at Feilding. Kegarding the first, there certainly were grounds for the refusal. The hotel is simply a wayside inn, and a number of natives living near peth%ned that no license should be granted. As a matter of fact, it can scarcely be urged that the hotel is a necessity, the distance to either Palmerston or Feilding being only a few miles, and it would therefore be difficult to make out a case, except upon the grounds that the police offered no objection, and that, the license had lapsed merely through a technical informality. But we look upon the action of the Bench regarding Bellye's %ptel at Feilding as a far more serious matter. In that case plans were produced showing the dimensions and character of the building, which is in very way suitable, being built specially for a^firstclass hotel business. Both Strb-In-spector Goodall and Constable Price, the local police officer, testified as to the necessity of a third licensed house, and it was likewise proved that the applicant for the license was in every way suitable, being a man of experience, and, strange to say, a teetotaller. Yet, in view of these apparently convincing reasons, a majority of the Bench declared , against the license, which was refused. The Chairman, in giving the decision of the Bench, said a majority were of opinion there was no necessity for a third licensed house in Feilding. How did they arrive at this ? We were under the impression that when a Magistrate or Judge took his seat on the Bench, he was supposed to dismiss from his mind everything but what actually came before him in his judicial capacity. If this be the true spirit in which law should be administered, we utterly fail to understand by what process the majority came to the conclusion, in direct opposition to the evidence, that there was no necessity for a third hotel at Feilding. We are inclined to think, however, that there is something more in this matter than appears on the surface. Two at least of the gentlemen who sat on the Bench on the occasion are disciples of Sir WmT Fox — not, perhaps, following his example of total abstinence, but accepting his ideas on the political and economic aspects of the drink question. We have grounds for believing that the decision in Mr Bellve's case, was the outcome of those ideas, and that the application was not weighed upon its merits, but was refused to bring about an experimental application of the question, can a large boarding house be made to pay apart from the liquor trade ? If we are not mistaken, some such ideas as these prevailed: — " Here is a sober man, with a fine house, and in every way fitted to try whether people cannot do without drink. We will refuse the license, and watch the effect." We do not assert those were the only considerations, but we believe some such arguments largely assisted the refusal. *If this were the case, we consider the Licensing Bench have completely set aside their real duty, and have allowed their temperance proclivities to bias their judgment and influence their public action. We know nothing of Mr Bellve, his antecedents, or his house. But we say that any attempt to strain the law to suit preconlliVed ideas, and to work out fancy theories, is a course of action quite apart from the functions of the Licensing Bench. No doubt the drink evil is a frightful curse; but the number of drunkards compared with the number who^use liquor moderately, is very small indeed. Nine out of every ten men one meets use drink, and whilst society is composed as at present it is a mistaken idea to attempt to make teetotallers ,of people by the decisions of a Licen-

sing Bench. At present hotels are a necessity, as the people who take liquor are in the majority, and will not stay at houses where it is unobtainable. Iv small places like Feildingthe population is not large enough to support public boarding houses 'apart from the licensed hotels. The effect of the refusal of the application of Mr Bellve will therefore be to confer a' monopoly upon the two licensed houses already in existence at Feilding, without in any way diminishing the quantity of drink consumed.