§ MR. WILLIAM RUTHERFORD (Liverpool, West Derby), in asking leave to introduce a Bill to facilitate the provision of accommodation for supplying food and of other improvements in connection with premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors by retail, said it was a short and non-controversial Bill. The facilities referred to were five in number—first, the provision of accommodation for the supply of tea, coffee, cocoa, or food in licensed houses; secondly, the making of such premises more open, airy, well-ventilated, or clean; thirdly, the improvement or enlargement of the sanitary accommodation; fourthly, the substitution of the provision of chairs and tables, either wholly or partly, in lieu of existing bar accommodation; and fifthly, the provision of games, newspapers, music or gardens, or any other means of reasonable recreation. It was a temperance Bill, and the idea was that it should make for temperance and for sobriety. He believed it was generally admitted that the conduct of individuals was very largely influenced by their environment. There were many publicans and holders of licences who were sincerely desirous of making their premises more decent and cleaner, of supplying food and non-alcoholic refreshment, and of substituting chairs and tables for mere bars, but the accommodation was so limited, and the restrictions imposed by the magistrates and the Legis- 1730 lature so difficult to get over, that they were prevented from making their licensed houses so comfortable, so respectable, and so commodious as they wished. This was not a party Bill, and it was in no sense controversial. There were, he knew, some persons who would rather end public-houses, but his suggestion was that they should make the public-house brighter, and as it was inevitable that no matter how many public-houses were reduced some would remain, he gathered that even those who would end a portion of the public-houses would be with him in allowing the Bill to be read a first time. In France and Belgium and other Continental countries there were no restrictions which prevented that class of trader from enlarging and making his premises structurally convenient. He had the same facilities as other classes of traders, and what was the result? In France the convictions for drunkenness last year were only 623, of which 207 alone were in Paris, and if they compared that with the 197,000 convictions for drunkenness in England and Wales it showed that the removal of restrictions which made drinking secret and carried on in ill-regulated places, and gave proper facilities for reasonable refreshment in decent places, would do a great deal to get rid of the drunkenness and insobriety from which this country at present suffered. It was for those reasons he asked the House to allow him to introduce the Bill.
§ Motion made, and Question, "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to facilitate the provision of accommodation for supplying food, and of other improvements in connection with premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors by retail,"—(Mr. William Rutherford,)—put and agreed to.
§ Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Watson Rutherford, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Lord Robert Cecil, Mr. James Mason, Mr. Barnard, Mr. Gretton, Colonel Hall Walker, Mr. Goulding, Sir Henry Kimber, Earl of Ronaldshay, and Mr. John Rutherford.