§ Where at a railway station any premises structurally adapted to be used and bonâ 2872 fide used for the purpose of the reception of guests and travellers desirous to sleep on the premises include or are used in conjunction with refreshment rooms at that railway station, a retailer's on-licence may be granted at the option of the licence holder on payment of the duty which would be payable under the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910, in respect of such refreshment rooms if they were a separate set of premises, together with such sum as would be payable as duty under the same Act on the part of the premises not so used if such part were also a separate set of premises, but it shall be a condition of any such licence that there shall be no internal communication for the use of the public between such refreshment rooms and such other part of the premises.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause be read a second time."
§ Mr. HILLSI beg to move this Clause, which meets the case where you have a> railway hotel which is used in connection with refreshment rooms at a railway station. Since the passing of the Finance Act (1909–10) the licence holder is placed in a very special difficulty, for either he has to apply for one licence for both the hotel and refreshment rooms, in which case, if the sale of drink in the railway refreshment room increases the sale of drink over one-third of the total trade, he loses the exemption under Section 45 of the Finance Act, or he has to apply for two separate licences and is exposed to double cost. This is a very hard case and I am sure it was not intended under the Finance Act. I should say also that this Clause was on the Paper last year and was very favourably received by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It could not be moved last year because it was in the wrong form, but now it is in the right form and I hope the Chancellor of the Exchequer will consider it. The revenue will suffer no loss at all and the only effect of the Clause will be to remove an admitted grievance. I beg to move.
§ Sir RUFUS ISAACSThe difficulty in this matter is that when once you begin to make these discriminations it is impossible to say where you will stop. The hon. Member says that in this particular case, according to his view, there will be no great difficulty. It is difficult to say to how many cases this will apply. Once you start such discrimination even in one or two cases, it is 2873 quite impossible to resist other Amendments that come very close indeed to this one, and it will be impossible to draw the line.
§ Question, "That the Clause be read a second time," put, and negatived.