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93
DISORDERLY HOUSES.
In consequence of a return to the former practice by the
Police of rendering assistance to the Local Authority in the
observation of alleged brothels, the Vestry have been enabled
to prosecute with success a larger number of keepers of Disorderly
Houses than for three or four years past. Perhaps
the most important prosecution undertaken by the Vestry
was that against the owner of a house for being a party to
the continued use of the premises as a brothel. In this case
the full penalty for a first offence (£20) was inflicted.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, by rendering unnecessary
the old procedure of entering into recognizances, and
enabling the Magistrate to dispose of the cases summarily,
has both cheapened and expedited the legal proceedings.
Early in the year, the Vigilance Society of an adjoiningParish
took proceedings under the old Act, and the nominal
informers claimed the rewards to which they were entitled.
Altogether the Society obtained five convictions, three of
them being of lodgers only, and, so far, of trivial importance,
but under the old Act informers claimed and have been paid
the statutory reward of £20 in each case.
The cost to the rates if the Parish undertake a prosecution is
probably about £10 on the average, and as the Vestry some
years since adopted a standing order directing proceedings
to be taken against keepers of disorderly houses upon a
proper complaint being made to the Vestry Clerk, supported
by sufficient evidence to justify a prosecution, it is difficult
to understand why ratepayers should prefer the more costly
process of proceeding. If the penalties inflicted were allowed
to be applied in payment of the expenses of the prosecution,
even the cost named might be materially reduced.