Lord Windsor's Public-house.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7662, 22 June 1896, Page 4

Lord Windsor's Public-house.

|f NOVEL EXPERIMENT IN SOUTH pi. ; . . WALES.feiTHB Dunedin Star's London correejppoindenfi writes :— pgf -Temperance reformers In your part of ffetlifl ; "world who are nevertheless not ipfflinpant Rechabftea may like to hear the jip>ißtoiry_ of a novel experiment at St. fe^adrsn's, near Cardiff. This is a model jjkpublie-honse kept by the lord of the p manor, ""■ and worked in the interests of Bgdaoenoy and moderation. The proprietor, j^jterd Windsor, explains his system us K| follows : . ||.->'On.floine portions of my estate publicLlhouses had been prohibited altogether, |£iitid, l, cannot say that I was altogether psstisfied with this method, as I believed jSjS"£ " licensed -victualler's " house in the Iftrue senee of the term was very desirable. SjThe old landlord of the Plymouth Armp t having died, I decided to put this idea into practice, and the first thing done wns g-jtb lave the place rebuilt, so that instead |.of;the ordinary tap room for simple drinkSing.pnrposfis there might be a real refreshfeSjaent house. ||y;The 6rsfc thing that strikes the visitor KpTthe attractive porch, which has two Hpgplendid gates. The door, which is tastily BlNtecbrated, leads into a spacious hall fitted |Kpp with tables and chairs, with a good Hjifireplafle to make the room cosy in the B||wjrjter. ./Here the visitors can sit down, ■Sire/id the papers provided, chat over their and make themselves Mineral ly spoakiner, at home. At the Blpfigltti th'erfi is a door leading to the Rtni'lo 1 Bra|>gmy : &hJ6ti,iß largely used, while on HuH e t:n , ere ' 3 a Bitting room for those K| |tyjn(t jh the house. In addition to tins Kg | fercis the ordinary bar, and accommodn H| i o^gelsewhere for the better class of ■K ijS^pinerß " who may want liquor. Of H| mf^in-i small place like St, Fagans Kg Jjesbbm necessary for this purpose Is not j^plK^'e.osive, the ordinary bar being to hold about twenty-five H|||pK|ife|;;-while the better-class room wil l l^paj^ißStijt^nVpersons.-. ~ . B^ffiKjJoVinlo'the manaior with the intoxiBl ffi?.^'M u ?. r > or . 'he sale of which he ha« Bf P^M^ a |}|Copiint. ' For retailing thesi■l |||^^$£JB'p9id *, fi?ed salary, and he Hi l S^?'i?!! l -*'?«P r K ren^' fr° m this sourer 1 H^P^Mp?' I?'*ii1 ?'* i i in -f»oN h° ' H f here t> BTOggOtt^tenßnce , exceasive driuking. I BH^pfej^<?lß<i of .having the best beer .

wine and spirits, the purity of which would cause the heart of Mr Quilter to beat with joy. On the other hand, the manager is paid a commission on the profits of everything outside the sale of ' intoxicating liquors— the hostelry, lodging ! accommodation, dinners, sale of temperance drinks, and so on. I may add the beer cellars are very small indeed, and as the liquor is supplied at fairly regular intervals an influx of customers would soon exhaust the stock. It would not do for the reputation of the house for such a condition of things to arise, and the manager very naturally watches the consumption of his visitors. My idea was to provent drunkenness, and at the same time not to extinguish what I look upon as a necessity of social life. As far as the village is concerned the result has been very advantageous in every respect, and intemperance is almost unknown. I insist upon the laws governing public-houses to be strictly observed, and anyone who hns the slightest appearance of being intoxicated is not served. In villages it is often very difficult to find a room where a lecture or meeting can be held, but I have provided a room in the house which can be used for such purposes, which does away with the necessity of a drinking club, which is often formed under this guise, for other parts of the house provide the other characteristics common to these clubs. The rest of the house consists of bedrooms and the manager's apartments. The working is almost synonymous with the Gothenburg system, as advocated by the Bishop of Chester, but it was rather the efforts in this direction of the late Sir Edmund Lechmere in Worcestershire that made me work the house on these lines. Instead of the profits going towards lessening the rates or helping charitable institutions they go towards improving the house. Ido not advocate the Gothenburg "system as such, as I am not quite clear as to the advisability of this method of dealing with the profits. In the ordinary public-house there is undeniably a tendency to encourage drinking, and it is this excuse which is the cause of all the evil. Drinking " for the good of the house " is unknown, as the customers know that- it is not wanted. If a customer seems at all inclined to indulge, the manager gives him a quiet hint on the subject, which has the desired effect. We have no Sunday drinking, as the license is only for " six days," so that we do not have anything to do with those very troublesome customers " the bona fide travellers." I had almost forgotten to mention the grounds at the back, which are greatly appreciated in the summer. lam more than pleased with the result of the experiment, for I believe it is one of the best ways of promoting true temperance ; and if our village inns could be worked on these lines all over the country drunkenuess would disappear, and the need of temperance legislation could not be urged, at any rate as far as our rdral districts are concerned. Since the standard time was adopted there has been constant trouble at Broken Hill. The railway runs from Adelaide. Not to throw the service out of gear or to complicate the 400 miles of -rail with two times, the Railway Commissioners have adopted the Adelaide system in preference to the standard New South Wales Bystem. The mining companies have followed suit. These being the strong institutions in the town, have dominated the people. Adelaide time, therefore, reigns wherever ordinary business is done. The banks nominally stick to official time. The Goveenment offices do, of course. The hotels have to. Other commercial houses follow the time which custom rather than the law dictates. As the miners are dependent on the mines, they set their clocks by the time in Adelaide likewise. The schools keep both times, only they call 10 o'clock 9 o'clock. Anyhow the whole thing is a jumble, beoause commercially and geographically the Barrier is united to Adelaide and not to Sydney. In Oamaru, the other day, a prohibited person was fined for going into a store which had a bottle license. It was not shown that he asked for liquor, and he had put down Is Gd when the storeman ordered him out. Of course there were goods in the store which he might have been wishing to purchase. But the copestone of the whole extraordinary business waa that the man was employed in a store which holds a bottle license, and that the Magistrate told him that, as he read the Act, he was liable to a fine for working there ! The story which obtained a ready currency a few weeks ago that Mark Twain had sold the copyright of the book he will write on his Australasian experiences for LIO.OOO is not true. He has been interviewed, and stated that though he had been offered L4OOO he had refused it, as he considered it indiscreet for an author to sell his copyright. He did not even hope to get his book out in sis months, but perhaps would begin work at Capetown. One remark of his may find an echo over here : that publishing books is " all a gamble, self-interest, of course, guiding both author and publisher." The caisson of the extension to St. Andrew's Dock [&t Hull broke suddenly on May 15tb, and [the rush of waters swept away all the vessels in the docks from their moorings, jamming them in a hopeless mass of wreckage. The damage is estimated at £100,000. There was no loss of life.

Anyone who has children will rejoice with L. B. Mulford, of Plainfield, N. J. His little boy, five yeara of age, was sick with croup. For two days and nights he tried various remedies recommended by friends and neighbors. He says : " I thought sure I would lose him. I had seen Chamberlain's Cough Remedy advertised, and thought I would try it as a last hope, and am happy to say that after two doses he slept until morning. I gave it to him next day, and a cure was effected. I keep this remedy in the house now, and as soon as any of my children show signs of ctoup I give it to them, and that ia the last of it." For sale by E. D. Smith, wholesale and retail-agenj;. — Advt.