VPRS 1437 Licensing Court Register

Full description

Up to 1886 registers of applications for liquor and non-liquor licences were created and maintained in local courts of petty sessions at which annual, quarterly and general sittings of justices of the peace, licensing benches or licensing magistrates occurred.

Under the Licensing Act 1885 (40 Vic.,No.857) Victoria was divided into Licensing Districts and Licensing Courts were constituted for each Licensing District to hear and determine liquor licence applications. Licence Registers extant for the period 1886 to 1890 often document the transition of responsibility from the courts of petty sessions to the licensing courts. In most country areas the same volume continued to be used for liquor and non-liquor licence applications until circa 1890 when new stationery was introduced specifically for liquor licence applications. Between 1886 and 1890 the pages which record proceedings of the Licensing Court are annotated to show that they are a record of that authority.

This series comprises a record of proceedings concerning licence applications. If the records document proceedings held prior to 1890, it is likely that they will include both liquor and non-liquor licence applications. If the records only document proceedings held after 1890 the applications should relate solely to non-liquor licences.

Some common non-liquor licences included:
Auctioneers
Carriers
Hawkers
Stage Coach operators
Slaughterers
Real Estate Agents
Collectors.