From the Kent and Sussex Courier, 30 August 1876.

BREWSTER SESSION.

This was the annual Session for the renewing of licenses, and for the hearing of applications for new licenses.

Mr G. D. Warner:- I was instructed to apply on behalf of John Roberts with reference to a license for the St. James road.

The Chairman:- There is a little peculiarity about that. We are told that the license for a beer-house on Mount Ephraim -----

Mr Warner:- The "Devonshire Arms."

The Chairman:- The first suggestion was that the license should be transferred to John Roberts. In that case we are prepared to entertain an application for a full license for the house in St. James’s-road. But it occurred to us that the period is so very near when that license will lapse that it is scarcely worth while to transfer it; but if there was a distinct understanding that that license would be allowed to drop at Mount Ephraim we should be disposed to entertain an application for a full license in St. James road.

Mr Warner:- The application I was going to make was this. There have been two notices given for an application to-day, but since those notices were given there has been a proposal to waive the license of the "Devonshire Arms." My application will be, therefore, that the matter shall stand over until the adjourned meeting when we shall give the notices as required by the Act.

The Magistrates’ Clerk (Mr Simpson):- That is not necessary.

Mr Cripps:- I should object most strongly, and I say the Magistrates have no power to act unless the notices are before them.

Mr Wigg:- Who do you object for?

Mr Cripps:- I object on behalf of several.

The Chairman:- Does Mr Warner represent the owner of the "Devonshire Arms?" Any objections that may have to be made had better be deferred now.

Mr Cripps:- I contend that a regular notice ought to be given of the intention to transfer from one house to another, and then all the parties will be before the Court.

Mr Wigg:- We propose to drop the old license altogether.

The Chairman:- It is another way of affecting the same object.

It was decided that the license of the "Devonshire Arms" should be renewed, Mr Webber, the tenant, and Mr H. Pink, the owner, agreeing to cancel the license on condition of the full license now granted for the house in the St. James’s-road being confirmed by the Licensing Committee.