COMPENSATION UNDER THE LICENSING ACT.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR." _1
have been reading in a local paper the proceedings of a Licensing Committee when holding a "Compensation Sessions." They afford a striking proof of your contention that a national asset in the regulation of the liquor trade has been shamefully wasted. Fifteen licenses had been suppressed, and the compensation to be given was under consideration. In three cases the Committee was not able to come to any decision, and these were referred to the Board of Inland Revenue. The figures of the twelve which were settled may be given for brevity's sake together. The value of the premises as ordinary dwellings or shops was put down at £3,315. This may be taken as the price at which they were originally acquired. A third may be added for the expense of adapting them to the liquor traffic. We thus get a total of £4,420. The brewers who owned them—they were all " tied " houses—had been accustomed to receive a rental of £333, working out at about 71 per cent. on their outlay, and a profit of £1,843 on the beer supplied, making close upon 50 per cent. To most people it would seem that they would not have done very badly if they had been told: "You have made plenty of money out of the business ; now it is at an end." But that is not our way. The Committee allotted them a compensation of £19,494. This, then, is the general result. Messrs. John Barleycorn and Co. spend £4,420 on buying houses, for which by good luck or favour they obtain licenses. In twenty years they get back in rent £6,660, and at the end of the time about three times as much more,—£26,150 in all. Nor are the tenants left wholly out in the cold. They get a sum of £2,485. The pitiable story told in the Times of Monday, the 12th inst., of the firm which, having bought a house for £800, received from the Inland Revenue authorities £150, and sold the house again for 2150—observe how the license more than quintuples the value—is, let us hope, an exception. I observe that in the cases which the Licensing Committee referred to the Revenue authorities the brewers promptly climbed down, and offered to take what the Committee might choose to award. I observe also that in four of the twelve cases the award and the claim were approximately near ; and that in the other eight £20,627 was claimed, and £14,227 given. It is a curious fact that the total annual consumption of beer in the twelve houses was 129,600 gallons, and that this was extinguished or transferred at a cost of a little more than 3s. 4d. a gallon.
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