§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is the fact that the Magistrates of Salford have directed a revaluation of all the Beer-houses in that town to be made by a surveyor, and directed that the owners of those houses should pay the costs of such survey; and, whether, if so, such a proceeding is in the view of the Government in accordance with the provisions of the Licensing Acts?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that his attention had been called to the case in question, and he had no objection to state what were the views of the Government in relation to the Licensing Act upon the construction of that statute; the 46th section, in order to provide for the change which took place when the Act was passed as to taking the annual value of the beerhouses instead of rating. At the first annual general licensing meeting after the passing of the Act the justices were required to obtain what the value of the premises were, and at that time they might do one of two things—they might either say they were of a certain annual value, or, if not of that annual value, then they might give the person in the occupation of the premises another 12 months, in order to make them of the full annual value. Therefore, by the 858 year 1873 everybody would have had an opportunity of making their houses up to the annual value. The magistrates might then make a revaluation, and charge the occupiers with the cost. But having come to the determination that the beer-houses were of a certain annual value in 1872 and 1873, he was bound to state that it seemed a somewhat extraordinary construction of the Act to take a general sweep over the entire beer-houses in 1874 to see whether they were of the same annual value. When a beer-house was once declared of a certain annual value, it did not follow that it would always continue of the same value, as the property might deteriorate, and, therefore, the justices were perfectly entitled at any time to have a revaluation.