Proposed Amendments. Wellington, Sept. 29. LICENSING MATTERS

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 222, 1 October 1887, Page 1

Proposed Amendments. Wellington, Sept. 29.

LICENSING MATTERS

The Commissioner of Police, in his report to Parliament, will bring under notice the importance of making certain amendments in the Licensing Act, Gaming and Lotteries Act, and Police Offences Act. With regard to the two first mentioned Acts the absence of a clear and preciso definition of what stituesanimlawfulgamerendersitalmostimpofsible to obtain convictions against publicans and others for permitting gambling with cards or dice. Experience has shown that a large majority of the magistrates in the colony decline to enter convictions in such cases, in the absence of an explicit interpretation, and as a consequence the evil has been on the increase. The Commissioner thinks the case would be met by the- insertion of tho following clause from tho old provincial Licensing Acts : — "No person licensed under this Act as a publican, or holding an accommodation house license, bottle or conditional license to sell : liquors, shall suffer or permit gambling or any game of chance in or upon his house or premises." It is pointed out that the provision in the Licensing Act relating to the sale of liquor to prohibited pei*eons is virtually a dead letter, for the reason that persons supplying the liquor can rarely be got at or punished. It is thought that the difficulty could be met if Section 171 were altered so as to make ife compulsory on prohibited persons when arrested for drunkenness to disclose the name of tho persons who supplied them with liquor under a heavy penalty for refusal. Under the section referred to the magistrates have declined to convict the licensee when the liquor has been served by the servant and the master has sworn that he instructed the servant not to serve the drunken or prohibited person. The clause should be bo amended as to leave no doubt on the magistrates' minds that the maxim " Respondenab superior " applied to the licensee by shifting the responsibility on to his servant to escape the penalty he most desires to avoid, viz., an endorsement of conviction upon his license to overcome tho ingenuity of the publican in this respect. It is proposed that tho following new clause should be added to the Act : "Any breach of this Act by the servant of any licensee shall be deemed to be the act of the licensee, and punishable as such, notwithstanding thab proof may be given that such servant acted against the orders of his employer." Suggestions are made for several alterations in the Police Offences Act, 1884, and among other things an extension of the provisions relating to drunkenness is proposed, by adding the following words after the word "drunkenness" in Section 21 — "or by reason of the excessive u&e of alcoholic liquors his or her mental faculties or bodily health are impaired." The necessity for this addition is that many magistrates will not apply the provisions of the Act to persons arrebted unless they are helplessly drunk. Persons on the verge of delirium tremem are, by some magistrates, not deemed to be drunk. They are consequently dealt with as lunatics, and remanded to gaol for treatment and examination by medical men, if necessary, and this means generally a few days* nursing at the expense of the country, when the "patients" are discharged and ready to start again at their old game, after receiving free board and lodging and escaping scot free from fines. Sub section 29 of section 3 of the same Act provides that certain offences, such as using abusive or insulting language, are punishable only when committed in a public place. It has, however, been found that these are frequently committed, nofe in a public place, within the meaning of the Act, but in private yards or inside a fence adjacent to a public place, and an alteration of the law is suggested to meets these cases.