DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1905, 18 June 1892, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

(From our own Correspondent.)

One of the strongest influences operating with the City Licensing Bench in selecting their victims among the hotels is the determination to put down the systematic and widespread gambling that exists. Even the most rabid prohibitionists, those whose custom it is to look upon public houses as the sum of everything infamous and demoralising, would hardly credit the extent to which gambling is carried on, and the great public, I am inclined to think, would stand aghast did they only know the shining lights in the social, political, and religious world, who are the habitues night, after night of a few of the more notorious gambling houses of the swell order. The social standing and influence of those men deter the police from raiding those iouses and. bringing the gamblers to the police-cells as they would commoner ruffians. I was told a day or two ago of a hotel that, of course, cannot be named, in which a small and select party, including the" proprietor himself, sat from Saturday night until

late the next evening, some hundreds of pounds in paper and coin changing hands during that time. On Sunday morning an elderly member of thr* party, who is a justice of the peace, a pillar of his church, and a most estimable man (in public), rose for the purpose of appearing in the family pew, which he di<!, and no one present listened with deeper attention to the sermon on gambling which the worthy clergyman preached that morning. But of course these things cannot go on without from time to time creating a public scandal and getting to the public ear. The smart hands who pocket heavy winnings too often are watched, as the suspicions of men who lose big stakes are easily aroused, and gamblers much distrust each other, then there is a disturbance, and, to use a sporting term, the fat is in the fire. I should say that fully three parts of the hotels here are veritable gambling hells, and so very closely is the practice wedded to the general business of drink selling in those houses that nothing less than sweeping them away completely will be effective as a remedy. I believe the Licensing Committee in the city are shaping iheir decisions very much towards that end.

The hotelkeepers in the city and suburbs are in a terrible state of alarm at~ the closeness with which they are being pressed by the prohibitionist agitation. On Wednesday evening the Otago Licensed Victuallers' Association of the entire trade met at the Central Hotel to consider the crisis in their affairs. There was a very large gathering, many of those who had been lately deprived of their licenses being among the speakers. Curiously enough or, perhaps, appropriately enough, the first speaker put up to vindicate the cause of the publicans and hurl anathemas at the heads of the temperance party was our everi green friend V. P. Mr Pyke was in unvsually good form, and looked very well, considering his recent adventure with the cyclone in Wellington, when it appears he was only saved from destruction by the friendly shelter of a lamp post. Mr Pyke is not the first belated city traveller who owes a debt of gratitude to a lamp post. " Some day," said Mr Pyke, "you will have a vegetarian society, and then the butchers' shops will be shut up; but I would rather have the butchers' shops shut up than the public-houses." This was very feeble as an argument. " What am Ito do now," he asked plaintively, " when I go to Roslyn ? Why, I'll have to carry my flask in my pocket." This was also feeble but pathetic, because, probably, of its truth, and the look of prospective suffering that accompanied it. After Mr Pyke came some of those publicans who have just been deprived of their licenses, as well as some of the brewers, who will, of course, also share in whatever loss or injury is involved in the closing up of hotels. The case of Mr Cottar, of the White Horse Hotel, as well as one of the Roslyn publicans, was effectively pat, and appeared to strongly appeal to the sympathies of the meeting, It is only a short time ago that Mr Cottar took over the " White Horse," spending over £800 on it. He had been in the trade for twenty years, and no charge had been made against him. This reads hard ; but it might be argued that after twenty years in such a profitable business he should be prepared to go out and make room for a new comer. Mr Robert Wilson described the withdrawal of the license from Wain's Hotel as a wicked proceeding ; and Mr Maurice Joel (brewer) thought the world must be coming to an end when men were not allowed to enjoy themselves, a remark that was received with a clinking round of applause. Mr Begg came in for a large share of the most violent abuse. He was described as the biggest tyrant in the country, and being "the ruler of the roost in Roslyn, he had turned the publicans out of their houses.

The twin description of tyrant and ruler of the roost in a community where one man is as good as another does not harmonise very well. The fact is, there is no use in the publicans reviling those at the head of the prohibition movement. Nor is there much wisdom in endeavouring to force back the rising tide of public opinion on this question. Had not Mr Begg and such men solid, consistent, and steadfast support at their backs, they would be entirely powerless to enforce their opinions. This the Licensed Victuallers' Association should know, as they have drawn freely on their large resources in fighting this question, and their meeting on Wednesday evening is the first public admission of defeat — not by the few individuals whom they denounced as fanatics and tyrants, but by the sheer force of an educated and irresistible public opinion. However it may be as regards to.al prohibition.it is perfectly clear that a very considerable diminution in the number of licensed houses in the city will be effected within the next few years. This is the inevitable result of the abuses which have been permitted, without check or restraint, to go on multiplying from year to year, until the public sense of decency has been driven into revolt. Instead of the swarm of festering dens that line the streets in every part of the city, breeding grounds for vice and disease and poverty, we may, by-and-by, as the result of this agitation, have a reasonable number of cleanly and properly-conducted establishments that will be hotels in something more than in name. No doubt a good many publicans and property-owners will suffer before this desirable consummation is arrived at; but no deep-seated disease can be removed without a free use of the knife and much suffering to the patient.

There are already unmistakable signs that the proposal to levy a rate for the purpose of enabling the Harbour Board to reduce their port charges will meet with some very determined opposition. The " Daily Times " has been devoting a good deal of space and argument to the subject within the last week or so, and strong as its advocacy is and plausible its arguments in favour of the proposed rate, I am inclined to think even i-x this city it will need a more potent and masterful influence than an inspired leader in the "Times" to bring the ratepayers into a compliant mood. The proposal to levy a city and suburban rate of a farthing in the pound for the establishment of a free library, a most commendable object, without doubt, met with a very fierce resistance, and had to be abandoned for the time, at all events. And now here comes a proposal of a rate of one fai-fcbing in the pound on the capital value of properties in the counties and sixpeuce in the pound on the annual rateable values in municipalities. And for what ? To make Dunedin a free port ? Nothing of the kind ; merely to reduce the charges, though not suffi-

ciently to bring them down to the level of those of our rivals north and south. We all admit the vital necessity, not only to the city but to the province, rf attracting to our harbour and maintaining the status of Dunedin as ix market for a very large portion of the provincial district, but even for so considerable an advantage the price asked may be too much. I feel certain, however it may be in the country districts, the property-owners of this city will resist the imposition of a rate of such dimensions by every means in their power ; and that being so the Harbour Board will simply have to stew in their own financial juice. A table showing the annual rateable property in the districts to be covered by the proposed rate has been published by the " Daily Times " In this I notice the rateable property in Tuapeka County is set down at £887,214, which at jd in the pound would produce £924 3s 7|d; while the value in the municipality of Lawrence is given as £8,044, and this at 6d in the pound would give a revenue of £201 2s to the Harbonr Board.

Mr Arthur McDonald's bankruptcy is the sensation of the hour; and yet it would be hardly correct to say ib has been altogether a surprise, as the firm's position for some time was known in business circles to be auybhiug rather than secure. It is sometime ago since Mr M'Donald's financial troubles first began, and during the last couple of years he has been stubbornly fighting, though with very unsatisfactory results, to avert the misfortune that has now overwhelmed him. His liabilities are very heavy, and with one or two exceptions all the creditors are in London. His unsecured liabilities amount to over £25,000, while his assets represent £5,711. His secured liabilities amount to £34,979, the value of securities being £35,025. Mr A. Low, a son of one of the principals in .he London firm of Low, Sons, and Bedford, who are creditors to the tune of £7,591, has been here sometime going through Mr M'Donald's books and making a thorough investigation of his business and financial transactions generally. The result of his labours was a determination to force the running on Mr M'Donald and show no quarter. The ugliest feature of the business is the charge alleged against him of packing bales of wool and rabbitskins for export to the London raarkst with inferior wool or rabbitskins, as the case might be, at the bottom and putting a few layers of prime quality on the top. The bankrupt, on the other hand, denies those allegations, and insists he always acted above board and instructed his employes to do likewise. Mr J. F. M. Fraser's examination ofthe bankruptwas merciless andexhaustive, but he is ably defended by Mr Hosking, and it is not easy to say, as yet, how it will all end.