lEypertmental  Xeoislation

33

Dr.  John  Watts,  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Social
Science  Association.  He  suggests  that  in  each  town
or  district  a  limited  number  of  licenses  should  be
sold  by  public  auction  or  tender.  His  purpose
apparently  is  to  limit  the  number  of  licenses,  and
yet  to  secure  the  profits  of  the  monopoly  to  the
community.
After  the  expiration  of  ten  or  fifteen  years,
Parliament  would  be  in  possession  of  a  great
amount  of  really  practical  information,  but  the
probability  is  that  it  would  not  be  found  necessary ­
  to  pass  any  great  Act  for  the  subsequent
regulation  of  the  traffic.  The  scheme  which  was
found  to  work  best  would  by  degrees  be  imitated
in  the  districts  of  corresponding  circumstances,
just  as  the  Gothenburg  scheme  is  being  imitated
in  other  Swedish  towns.  I  do  not  think  that
in  a  matter  of  this  sort  the  final  law  need  be
exactly  uniform.  In  the  Licensing  Act  of  1872,
it  was  found  undesirable  to  fix  a  uniform  hour
of  closing  public-houses  all  over  the  country.
Owing  to  the  difference  of  habits,  the  Metropolitan ­
  area  was  allowed  one  hour  later  at  night,
and  considerable  latitude  was  left  to  the  Licensing
Magistrates  to  vary  the  hours  of  closing.  Surely
such  matters  approximate  more  in  character  to
hackney  cab  regulations  or  matters  of  police,
which  have  long  been  left  to  the  borough
authorities.  It  is  only  the  political  question,
looming  behind  the  social  or  legislative  question,