Several of the statements made by Mr. Windeatt the Newton Abbot Brewster Sessions last week, on behalf of the total abstinence party being open to misapprehension we produce a few details this week as to the number of licensed houses in Wolborough & Highweek, and their proportion to the total population for which they are engaged in catering. There are 23 fully licensed houses at Newton Abbot, as well as six beer houses and one house kept open for the retail of cider. The estimated population served by the 30 houses where people can drink indoors is 12,518, a proportion of one licensed house at which drink can be obtained indoors to every 417 of the population. The Railway Station refreshment rooms, two confectioners’ shops or restaurants, and one house with off-license must be added to this list. Mr. Pinsent’s office and six shops, including Mr. Mills’s brewery office, bring up the total to 41. The off-beer license was created in October 1898. The office belonging to Messrs. Pinsent’s brewery holds a full license and is called the New Inn. At Messrs. Pinsent’s customers can be served just as they are at the ordinary public houses or hotels, but we believe half a pint of spirits is the smallest quantity retailed at their premises. Of the six shops mentioned above three are grocery establishments possessing off-licences. The smallest quantity of bottled spirits they can send out is a sixth of a gallon. They, however, possess power to retail small bottles of ale and stout. A simple long division sum will show that, given a basis of 41 licensed houses, there is one licensed house to every 305 of the population. How then does Mr. Windeatt obtain his estimate of one licensed house to every 260 of the people one or another of us are constantly meeting in the neighbourhood of Newton Abbot? The answer is that Mr. Windeatt has taken into calculation 7 of the chemists of the town holding licenses, making a total of 48 so-called licensed houses, or he may have referred to Wolborough alone.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive
Referenced
GRO0911 Devonport: William Swain Pinsent: 1843 – 1920