BRITISH LICENSING FEES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9442, 12 May 1909, Page 6

BRITISH LICENSING FEES.

It has long been snspected that the* Chancellor of the Exchequer was contemplating a lystem of high licenses, by which the licenses would bear some relation to the value of the trade of the house. The 1 Spectator says that tbe refusal of Britain to accept the high license system is utterly unreasonable. She is missing a source of revenue of many millions » year.? Messrs Rowntree and Sborwell say in theii well-known Jwork on Temperance Reform:—“While we are spending time and effort and money, and incurring great risks in our endeavour to secure a reduction of licenses, we could easily effect a greater redout: on than tbe most ardent temperance reformer anticipates by a simple and just revision of our license duties. “ together there are 1500 hotels in Lugland and Wales which pay only £2O per annum license duty, and their rateable value varies from £SO to £21,900. “Of the public-houses in England. 75 per oent. pay a license doty of from £4 10s to £25, and only 25 per cent, pay duty ;exceeding £253 The scale abounds in anomalies—e.g. : 100 houses rated at £l6 pay in license duty £800; 10 houses rated at £l6O pay in license duty £500; and 1 house rated at £I6OO pays in license duty £6O. “Against this put the license duty imposed in New England oities: In 21 of these the average license duty is £268, or ten times the average of the duty in the United Kingdom. “From 30,269 public-bouses in 164 towns|in Great Britain we received a total license revenue of £815,771. “Were our license duties graded on tbe same basis per 1000 of the population as those which are levied in similar towns in the United States, we should receive an annual revenue from these urban publichouses of £7,875,779. “The annual proceeds of the license duties in London are £205,000. “In New York, with half London’s population, the proceeds are £1,421,000.”