TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 347, 18 March 1897, Page 11

TRADE TOPICS.

In this issue we publish the portrail of Mr Lindsay Cooke, the well-known and popular host of the Albert Hotel, Queen Street, Auckland. Mr Cooke came to Auckland about twenty-two years ago, and during his residence in the colony he has experienced all the many and varied phases of colonial life. For this reason, coupled with great natural geniality and good sound common sense, he is universally recognised as an entertaining host of a high order. Though he is wise enough to avoid obstrusiveness, Mr Cooke was borne in the County of Tyrone, North of Ireland, where he served a three years’ apprenticeship to the grocery and general provision trade, but subsequently he left Ireland for Glasgow, Scotland, where he became employed in an enginering works and remained there for about three years. At the expiration of that time he returned to Ireland and obtained employment in a large wholesale grocery and tobacco manufactory concern. About the year ’75 he determined to leave his home and settle in this colony. For the first twelve months in New Zealand he took out for himself a sort of roving commission, during which time he gained experience of colonial men and colonial matters which has served him in good stead in his subsequent undertakings. At the expiration of this time he was engaged for a short period at Gisborne. After leaving Gisborne he became imbued with a strong desire for seafaring life, and in the gratification of his desire he joined the Union S S. Co.’s ship Hawea as steward, where he remained for four years. Leaving this vessel he joined the Tairoa, in the same service, in which vessel he was chief steward under Captain T. McGee. Leaving this ship he joined the Albion (Capt. Garrett), and was present when she ran down the schooner, Isabella Pratt, at Cape Colville. Leaving this ship he joined the Rotorua (Captain Tozer), and was subsequently four years in the Wakatipu, and, on leaving her to join the Tarawera, he was the recipient of valuable presents from the officers and crew of the vessel, together with testimonials of the highest character. After serving five years in the Tarawera he resolved to leave the sea and enter into business for himself. On leaving this ship he was again the recipient of valuable presents and testimonials, presented by the officers, engineers, and those of his own staff. It in no way discounts or detracts from the merits of any chief steward in the Union Company’s service to say that Mr Cooke was accepted by the travelling public as one of the most courteous and proficient stewards on the high seas, a testimony which has found its practical fruition in the host of travellers who visit his present hostelry for the sake of old associations, and with the full knowledge that all the appointments about the hotel will be as perfect in their way as were those arranged and controlled by Mr Cooke on board the respective vessels we have named. It is eight years since Mr Cooke left the Tarawera to become the proprietor of the Albert Hotel, and it is safe to say that the hotel has been constantly increasing in popularity, and it Yanks at ~ the present time as one of the first-class hotels of this colony. It is generally full of visitors, who bear eloquent testimony to everything connected with the house. Mr Cooke has recently purchased a good little farm, situated about thirteen miles from the city, which is in a high state of cultivation and will soon be on a par with the hotel as an up-to-date institution or concern. The Albert Hotel is now so well known as to need no further reference, but we feel assured that if any new visitors bestow their patronage on it and its proprietor, they will be able to fully endorse all that has been said and written in reference to both.

A New York man recently laid a wager of , 500dols. that he’d woo, win, and marry, within the hour, a young lady who had just arrived at the hotel where he was stropping, and who was a total stranger to him. The marriage-laws of the Great Republic were built to accommodate the hasty wooer. This hasty wooer lost no time in “ popping,” was accepted, and, a parson being sent for, those twain became one flesh in exactly 53 minutes 7| seconds. Consequently the wagerer scooped the dollars and, with his blushing bride, left for the honeymoon. After they were gone it was discovered that the happy pair were made man and wife years before, and that they were touring the country playing the wagering game at every stopping-place. The brothers Morell, the respective licensees of the Orient and Bull and Mouth hotels, Melbourne

(states the Sportsman), have recently been distinguishing themselves as amateur athletes. Mr Steve Morell has for some years rowed bow in the senior Mercantile crew, and his younger brother, Mr James Morell, captured the two miles Charity Handicap at the Victorian Amateur Cycling Association’s meeting on the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The bar is evidently no bar to the success of a boniface, either as bow in a boat or as a scorcher on a bike. There is no better authority in the matter of the licensed victuallers trade in Victoria than Mr G. D. Carter, an ex-Victorian Treasurer. The trade has not prospered of late years, and some of his remarks, when acting as chairman of the halfyearly meeting of the Carlton Brewery, may help in steering clear of shoals in New Zealand, Mr Carter is reported to have said : —“ In referring to the condition of the brewing trade, in his opinion, the depression had arisen from different causes than the competition in price. In the year 1888-89 the brewing business here had reached its zenith ; after that period employment for the workers began to flag, and the beer output consequently lessened. In 1890-91 matters became worse, and when in 1892 the Shiels Government put a duty on beer of 12s 6d per hogshead—a loss to the company of £25,000 per year—trade fell off enormously, debtors and tenants became more and more embarassed, and when in 1893 the disasters culminated in the financial crisis it became difficult, and in many cases impossible, to collect either rent, interest, or payment. The output fell off about one half,

property in some instances became unlettable, and in all cases unsaleable. Those were the gigantic causes that injured brewing undertakings far more than any competition in prices between different breweries. If a uniform price could be agreed on and adhered to they would be glad, but cohesion was at all times difficult. When the duty was put on, the brewers agreed that their customers should pay it. Publicans held meetings and agreed that their customers should pay it, and both agreements were broken almost as soon as they were made. As to the pre sent and the future, the position was a simple one. Trade was reviving, and material was reasonable in price, but almost all the brewery companies owed money, some of which had been lost, but they were still asked to pay interest. That was the trouble, and not the competition between the companies.”

Some years ago a well-known judge, noted as a temperance advocate ; was trying a case about a right-of-way. Amongst the witnesses were two brothers named Elm, very old residents. Robert Elm, aged eighty-five, a remarkably well-pre-served old man, was questioned by the judge. “ Are you a total abstainer?” “ I am, my lord. I never tasted liquor in my life.” “ Well,” said the judge, ‘‘you are a splendid illustrration of the virtues of sobriety.” His brother, John Elm, being called, the judge asked his age. Eightyseven, my lord.” “ Why, you look ten years younger than your brother. I need not. ask it you are a temperate man. Your appearance pioves it.” “I am not quite sure as to that, my lord ! My wife told me the other day that I hadn’t gone to bed sober these last twenty years. “Well! well!” said the judge,„ abstractedly. “ Elm is a good wood, wet or dry.”

A very good story is told of the Archbishop elect of Canterbury. When Bishop of London at his Palace of Fulham, he yearly had a gathering of young curates of his diocese, desiring to make their better acquaintance, and give them some fatherly instructions as to their coming duties. On one occasion the matter in consideration was the visitation of the sick. The Bishop proposed by way of rehearsal that he would be the invalid for the nonce, and he went and laid down on a sofa in an adjoining room, telling them to come in singly to see him. Of course, there was considerable hesitation as to who. should go first, and the Bishop had to ask them if they were going to keep him all day. With that a young Iri-hman volunteered to go, and approaching Dr Temple, whose name is Frederick, as he lay on the sofa giving an occasional groan, he exclaimed, ‘‘Ah Frederick ! It’s the drink again, I suppose, the drink again! ! ” Tableau ! Explosion of the good Bishop ! No more rehearsing of this busines ! !

What this paper (the Spectator) chiefly admires about the pump people is their extraordinary tolerance and the temperate way in which they invariably refer from the platform, and in the Press, to those who have the presumption to differ from them. These pleasing characteristics of the members of the aforesaid Pump Party were never, perhaps, more prominently brought out than on Monday evening, March 1, when, at the convention of the T.C.T.U., at the Art Gallery, theJJev. P. R. Munro was candid enough to admit ‘ he believed in red-hot fanaticism in temperance work,’ and certainly no unbiassed person can read the report in the dailies of Mr Munro’s speech without coming to the conclusion that he meant what he said.

Brother Taylor’s speech was several degrees hotter than Mr Munro’s. “ The average newspaper editor,” declared Mr Taylor, “ said that the prohibition movement was dead, but editors knew that the movement was never more alive than it was to-day. But nobody lied more easily ' than the average newspaper editor.” At a recent meeting of the Prohibition League the committee appointed to draw up suggestions for the con- ’ sideration of the league, recommended that temperance orators should empoloy ‘' temperance language,” and it is quite evident to the Spectator that Mr Taylor has read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested that recommendation —and his temperate utterances on Monday night are the result. But Mr Taylor’s energetic language is partly excusable on the score of the terrible disappointment of the Pump Party. For prohibition, if not dead, is dying. Hence these tears.