§ SIR CAMERON GULL (Devon, Barnstaple)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the frequent instances in which persons in a state of intoxication are landed from excursion steamers 686 plying between Bristol and other ports in the Bristol Channel; and, if so, whether such steamers are under any licensing control as regards the supply of intoxicating liquors to passengers and others on board, and in what authority is the granting and control of such licences vested; whether, if licensed, the licensee of any such steamer would become liable to penalties and forfeiture of licence on conviction of having supplied intoxicating liquors to persons intoxicated; whether the local police of any port or the harbour authority of any port have power to prevent the landing of passengers and other persons from such steamers when such passengers and other persons are undoubtedly intoxicated; and, whether the owners or lessees or such steamers would be liable to penalties on conviction that they or their employees have not exercised reasonable means to prevent passengers from becoming intoxicated whilst on board such steamers by use of liquors the latter may have conveyed on board?
§ MR. HANBURYThe sale of intoxicating liquors on these steamer's is carried on under a licence granted by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in pursuance of section 45 of the Act 43 & 44 Vic, cap 20. The Licensing Act of 1872 does not apply to these licences, and there are no provisions in the Act under which the licence is granted dealing with the sale of drink to intoxicated persons. As to what powers the police may have, under the Merchant Shipping or other Acts of that kind, I have no information.