NEW LICENSING ACT FOR WESTLAND.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 530, 15 July 1869, Page 3

NEW LICENSING ACT FOR WESTLAND.

In the House of Representatives Mr. Barff lias moved for leave to introduce a Bill to further amend " The AVestland Public-House Ordinance, 18G7." The amendments which ho proposed were, ho said, entirely founded on the recommendations contained in the report of a Select Committee of the County Council, and which report was adopted by the Council. The amendments which he would propose would make the following provisions : —First, that there should be four kinds of licenses instead of three, so as to allow of the local government issuing conditional or bush licenses. Second, that wholesale and bottle licenses should be transferable. Third, that conditional licenses might be granted on the gold-fields, at certain rates, on the recommendation of the Warden, the Resident Magistrate, and two Justices of the Peace. Fourth, that a lee or tax should be levied on dancing saloons or casinos, whether attached to public-houses or not. He believed that a license fee was now paid in the Auckland Province on such places. Those saloons or casinos on the gold-fields were, in a majority of cases, perfect dens of iniquity ; but if they were licensed they would come more directly under police supervision, and something of a respectable character might come to be attached to them. He would propose some further amendments in the Bill —slight ones, as to penalties for keeping houses open after hours, and so forth; and the last amendment would be to the effect that a license might be suspended by the County Council, on the recommendation of the Resident Magistrate or two Justices. Leave was granted. Mr. Barff and Mr. AV. H. Harrison were ordered to prepare the Bill, which was brought in, read a first time, and ordered to be printed.