SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such nooks of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] A Sketch of the Licensing Act of 1904. By Sir H. S. Cunningham. A Sketch of the Licensing Act of 1904. By Sir H. S. Cunningham.
• (Southern Publishing Company. 1s.)—Sir H. S. Cunningham complains that the Licensing Act diminished, if it did not destroy, a public asset of great value. Liquor itself may possibly be taxed as far as is consistent with public policy, but the vendors of liquor are certainly favoured by the State. If a house that regard being had only to size, structure, and situation, is worth, say, £5,000 becomes worth .225,000 when it is endowed with a practically irrevocable privilege of selling alcoholic drinks, it obviously ought to pay for what it gets. How much ? it may be asked ; 4120,000 has been added to the value. We will not attempt here to indicate the proper annual equivalent for such a gift, but it is clear that under the present system of licensing the sum that goes to the State is altogether inadequate. If that sum were quadrupled, the grantee of the license would still benefit. The writer of this notice received some months ago tho prospectus of a company which was to be formed in a provincial town to take over a licensed property. The dimensions were such that it could only be a drinking bar. It was valued at as
much the square foot as if it had been in Threadneedle Street. Other cogent criticisms on the Act may be found, but this is the most obvious and precise.
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