§ MR. J. G. TALBOT (Oxford University)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Justices of the City of Liverpool passed, last year, a resolution 156 requesting the Watch Committee to instruct the Head Constable to report to the Justices at the General Annual Licensing Meeting 1897, any case in which, after written warning, a licensee persists in serving children, apparently under the age of 13, with liquor for consumption off the premises, or in offering such children sweets, toys, or other gifts as inducements to visit the licensed premises, with the result that these objectionable practices have already ceased to a very large extent in that city; that the Justices of Bootle and Birkenhead have passed similar resolutions; as also the Standing Joint Committee of the County of Durham; and, whether the Home Office can recommend similar action in the rest of the country?
§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSThe Secretary of State has no information as to the action of the Justices and Joint Committee in the question referred to. The matter is, of course, one which is entirely in the discretion of local authorities, and in which therefore he can hardly interfere; but he thinks the example set by the Justices and Joint Committee is well worthy of being followed.