§ MR. FREDERICK WILSON (Norfolk, Mid.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been called to a statement by the Chairman of the Mitford and Launditch Bench of Magistrates that there were 165 licensed houses of various kinds in that petty sessional division, forty of which the magistrates considered unnecessary, and that probably thirty years would elapse before these houses could be closed; 300 and whether, in view of such cases, the Government will take steps to increase the compensation allowance so as to make the Act effective.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) I had not heard of the statement referred to otherwise than from the newspaper report which the hon. Member has been good enough to send me. Assuming, however, that this report is correct, I do not gather from it the grounds on which the Chairman"s anticipation is based. I think it will be time enough to consider the Amendment of the Licensing Act, 1904, when actual experience has shown it to be ineffective.