§ SIR W. LAWSON (Cumberland, Cockermouth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 1245 whether he is aware that the Dover Magistrates have been in the habit of granting occasional licences for the sale of liquor and permitting such sale after 10 p.m. on occasions other than a public dinner or ball; and that, on a recent occasion, such an occasional licence having been granted for a smoking concert, the local Inland Revenue authority took exception to the sale after 10 o'clock p.m., as being contrary to the Acts of Parliament; and, on communication with the Board of Inland Revenue, was instructed not to interfere but to fill up the licence in accordance with the Justices' consent; and, if the facts be as above stated, whether he proposes to take any action in the matter?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH, Fife, E.)By the Act 26 & 27 Vict., c. 33, s. 20, a person having obtained an occasional licence is permitted to sell excisable articles at any public dinner or ball during such hours as shall be allowed and specified in the consent given by the Justice of the Peace for the granting of such occasional licence. The Commissioners of Inland Revenue, acting in the spirit of this section, extend this privilege to the holder of an occasional licence for any other form of entertainment or amusement upon the production of a Justice's consent specifying the hours within which it is desired to sell excisable articles. But I would suggest that this is a matter affecting the Treasury rather than the Home Office.