The Westport Times. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1089, 15 July 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1873.

Tiie advocates of the Permissive Bill are evidently quietly at work arranging their plans of action during the coming parliamentary session. They were rebuffed and discomfited last year but not defeated, and, like giants they will come again to do battle with what they in their zealous enthusiasm declare a growing social evil. It has been mooted that their efforts will be directed, in the not improbable event of their bantling measure being again shelved, to obtain a modification of present existing Licensing Ordinances, so that one uniform system and regulation of licenses may prevail throughout the Colony, and that the license fees shall be raised to a degree that will, if they have their wish, bo prohibitive. Seventy five pounds sterling per annum is the moderate tax which the Permissive Bill advocates would have enforced upon the vendors of spirituous and malt liquors, and if they succeed therein the inevitable consequence will be the closing up of many modest hostelries. That it will decrease in a single iota the traffic in liquor is very doubtful. The most probable re&ult would be a vast increase in the number of unlicensed drink houses, and as a sequence, the enforcement of many men, who now do their moderate daily imbibitions openly to indulge therein by stealth, to the loss of selfrespect, and of respect also for the laws of their country. It must be conceded thst too many so called " hotels" exist in New Zealand. The homely name tavern or inn has disappeared, and whether the establishment boasts of a mere but and ben or a multitude of sitting rooms and dormitories, it obtains the same grandiloquent designation. The number is in excess of the legitimate requirements of the people, however migratory they may be in their habits, or compelled by the exigencies of their avocations to traffic at street corners. But this redundancy of the tapster fraternity, if evil it be, cannot be cured by any desperate remedy. It is hydra beaded, of lusty growth and strong protective sympathies. It numbers also in its brotherhood very many men of good standing and repute, and represents moreover a large invest meut of capital. All good and sufficient reasons why ultra-opponents of the liquor traffic should not be permitted to sweepingly change the current of time honored and prescriptive privilege. The actual restriction that seems absolutely necessary is the granting of licenses only in some definite proportion either to the number of people or the number of habitations within expressly defined districts. The custom prevalent in Nelson Province for instance of granting every application made for a publicans license, as a source of revenue, upon the observance of merely nominal requirements is radically bad, as encouraging the opening of small and inferior houses to the detriment of men who embark large capital in providing good accommodation for the public. Equally bad also is the capricious system adopted elsewhere of granting licenses, and not necessarily always, after the erection and fitting up of premises specially adapted for hotel business, leaving the applicant in doubt even after the investment of his capital, whether the magistrates presiding on the licensing bench, will permit him to gain an honest livelihood from such investment. This particular question is likely to excite warm discussion between the advocates of the Permissive Bill, and their opponents in the House, and an Otago contemporary referring thereto makes some excellent suggestions, that any intending applicant for an hotel license should apply to the licensing magistrates, before erecting his house, on some such principle as the following :—" Let the applicant lodge his application for a license in all respects according to the manner at present existing, with power for objections to be lodged against the same. At the Quarterly Licensing Meeting the Bench could then entertain the application in the same way as now; hear the objections, if any, consider the character of the applicant, and the desirability or nondesirability of increasing the number of houses in the district, and either refuse the license absolutely, or grant it subject to certain conditions. Those conditions should be as follows : That within some specified time from the date of the meeting, the applicant should produce at a subsequent licensing meeting a certificate signed by a qualified surveyor, and by the chief officer of the police in the district in which the house is situated, to the effect that a hotel in all respects built according to the description given in the application, aad containing the

accommodation required by the Ordinance, had been erected by the applicant at the place mentioned in the application, and at no other, and was in all respects fit to be used as a hotel. On receiving and filing the certificate in the Court, and on payment of the usual fees, the license should then be issued to the applicant. If the applicant failed to produce such certificate within the specified time, or within such extended time as the licensing justices should think fit to grant, his application should be deemed to have wholly lapsed." The particular application of such principle to the #ranl- - of licenses outhe Nelson Goldtields, would be not so apparent as the restriction of the number of houses to the actual needs of the population, but in any case if the modification of the existing Licensing laws is to be attempted it should not be left alone to the opponents of liquor traffic to indicate such modifications. Here and there in New Zealand local Licensed Victuallers Associations have been formed. If the trade would effectually protect its interests the movement should become general.