Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Saturday, January 14, 1882.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1023, 14 January 1882, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.

PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Saturday, January 14, 1882.

We shall sell to no man Justice or Hight ; We ehall deny to no man Justice or Hight; We shall defer to no man Justice or Hight.

During the late election contest it was remarkable that the electors of this district took so little interest in the Licensing Act. Beyond the somewhat sweeping assertion made by Mr Allan McDonald M.H.R., that it was “ the worst Act ever passed,” we do not remember any of the other candidates expressing decided views -ii p<m the measure. While the Act, as it uow stands has many defects, by timely action on the part of the Licensed Victuallers, and the public, they might be amended next Session. There is one great merit the present Licensing Act possesses,

and that is of consolidating the law ' upon the subject. No less than 51 ' Acts, and that were en- . cumbering the statute books of the j Colony have been repealed by the Li I censing-Act now iu force. It repeals: lj Imperial Act ; 4 Ordinances of the Governor and legislative Council of New Zealand-; 14 Acts of the General Assembly, and 32 Provincial Acts. The provisions of the Licensing Act with respect to selling liquor on -Sunday, are not so stringent as was at first supposed. Our contemporary the B. Herald, seems to have misapprehended the Act: upon this point. In its issue of Thursday evening last, it refers to tile Licensing Act as (without any terms of qualification.) prohibiting “ the sale of liquors on Sunday.” We hare looked up the Act, and find that the 155th clause provides for the imposition of a penalty, not exceeding £lO for the first offence, and anv sum not exceeding £2O for the subsequent offence, upon “ any person, who during the time at which Licensed premises are directed to be closed by. or in pursuance of this Act, sells, or exposes for sale in such premises any liquor, or opens, or keeps open such premises for the sale of liquors.” But from the clause following it would appear that there is unlimited power to the Licensed Victualler to sell liquor at any hour of the night or day, on Sunday to bona fide, travellers and lodgers. Clause 156 reads: —“ Nothing in this Act shall preclude an innkeeper who is licensed to sell liquor to be consumed on the premises from selling such liquor at any time to bona fide travellers, or to persons lodging in his house.” A bona fide traveller, for the purposes of the Act, being anyone who lodged the proceeding night, three miles from the place where the liquor is demanded. An important decision upon this question was recently given ,by the Dunedin Bench of Magistrates;, and was as follows The facts admitted are not sufficient to prove a breach of the law. The words of the Aet, “ keeps open such premises for the sale of liquors,” must be read and interpreted with other provisions, and the section following the one in which these words are found expressly provides that nothing in the Act shall preclude an innkeeper from selling liquor at anv tune to travellers or lodgers. To allow travellers to obtain liquors there must be access to the house, and lodgers must have ingress and egress, consequently it would be a most insensible interpretation to say that no door shall be open into the house. Kow, as to the other facts admitted, that there was access to the bar where liquors are kept, and that there was a. person in the bar to serve liquors. These facts are quite consistent with lawful traffic, for travellers and lodgers have to be supplied, and there is no restriction as to the part of the house in which they are to be served. To put the conclusion we come to in other words, we are of opinion that the Licensing Act does not prohibit the keeping open the door of an hotel, or access to the bar, or a person being there t-o serve ; but these are all facts which -•may be considered as evidence of intent, and we do not consider this evidence is sufficient to prove that defendant’s object was to sell liquors to other persons than travellers and lodgers, because, in respect to an hotel in which a large business is carried on. the facts are not inconsistent with lawful traffic. The A”etc Zealand Times makes the following comments upon the decision given This judgment is based upon sound reason and common sense, however much it may be opposed to the principle of the Act, and is one among many instances in which the slightest ambiguity or seeming contradiction in the wording of clauses is sufficient to nullify intended effect. In t is case the provision that all licensed premises shall be closed and no liquor sold on Sundays is nullified by a clause immediately following, which permits a licensed innkeeper to sell liquor “ to be consumed on the premises,” at any time to bona fide travellers or to persons lodging in the house. Other clauses in the Act take away all choice from a licensed innkeeper in such respect, and make it imperative that he shall provide good lodging and entertainment. To do this he must give them (travellers or lodgers) access to his licensed house on Sundays, and, as the Dunedin magistrates have ruled, there is no prohibition to his keeping the bar open or placing a person there to serve all lodgers or bona fide travellers, not merely for one or two hours in the day, but for an equal number of hours to those in which, by terms of his license, his house must be open for business during week days. The only check the Act provides against an infringement of these provisions is that-, in the course of any proceeding against an innkeeper he, as the defendant, may be culled upon to prove that the person supplied was a traveler or lodger to the Kest of his, the innkeeper’s knowledge and belief; and a purchaser of liquor on Sunday may also be called upon to prove that he is a bona fide traveller, and is subject to penalty for making false representation for the purpose of obtaining liquor “during the period (luring which such premises are closed in pursuance of this Act.” So runs Clause 158. But apart from the difficulty of proring that the premises are illegally open when the Act prescribes that, for the accommodation of a section of the public, such premises may--indeed, must— be kept open, the responsibility rests upon the police of catching offenders in the very act of-con-suming liquors during unlawful hours.