HOPETOUN'S CHAMPAGNE.
THE MELBOURNE DISTRIBUTION
ROWDY AND DRUNKEN
SCENES
THE POOR MAN AND HIS
BEER
(Received.B.2- a.nO
MELBOURNE, this day.
The Coronation distribution to the unemployed of a portion of the three hundred bottles of champagne and £100, the gifts of Lord Hopetoun, to which a brewing company added six barrels of beer, resulted in unseemly scenes. The distribution was made from the unemployed secretary's shop. Loafers and drunkards swarmed round the door crying out for a dole of beer. After two hours the crowd became so noisy and drunken that the police and advised the distribution to be stopped.
The proceedings were suspended for an hour.
Altogether 112 bottles of champagne were given away, but again the peoj)le receiving them were mostly drunken men and women.
Not one out of every ten of the
recipients was sober or decent. J The bottles were in many cases afterwards sold to the publicans, the ruling price being 5/ and one "long beer." The money thus received went to provide sprees for small knots of men and women.
Finally, after an' enterprising photographer had been crushed"through a window with his apparatus, all the. proceedings were abruptly stopped.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19020626.2.84.1
Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1902, Page 5
Word Count
195
HOPETOUN'S CHAMPAGNE.
Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1902, Page 5
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries.
Log in