TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 348, 25 March 1897, Page 10

TRADE TOPICS.

The subject of this week’s illustration, Mr J. W. Russell, was born at Epsom forty-two years ago, at which place his father settled on a farm opposite Potter’s Paddock, and since which time the subject of this notice has never left the provincial district of Auckland. Mr Russell’s father came to New Zealand from Glasgow with consider-

able capital, having previously been engaged in a large way as a wine and spirit merchant in that city. After leaving school, at the age of 13, Mr Russell (now the popular proprietor of the Occidental Hotel, Vulcan Lane) went to learn the grocery business with Mr S. J. Fernandez, where he remained for three years. Leaving this he took a situation in the firm of Messrs J. Nimmo and Co., tea and coffee merchants, and after becoming familiar with the business of this firm, he acted as a commercial traveller for the same firm until thej sold out the business to Messrs Brown, Barrett, and Co., merchants, Auckland. Aftei’ this Mr Russell became commercial traveller for the bottle department in the great brewing firm of Whitson and Co., and for three years he satisfactorily occupied this situation, which he resigned in order to join the N.Z. Railway Survey Service, under Mr J. Steward, C.E.; he remained in this service for two years, during which time he gave the fullest satisfaction. At the expiration of this period he felt it his duty to join his father, who was the lessee of the toll and weighbridge on the wharf (owned by the Auckland Harbour Board), where he remained for about four years, his father having been in charge for over twenty years altogether. Leaving the wharf Mr Russell entered the grocery business on his own account and followed this line for four years, when he became dissatisfied with the progress he was making and gave up the business. He now retired into private life for about four months, and, after this little spell, he became, over eight years ago, the proprietor of the Occidental Hotel. Vulcan Lane, which at that time was not what it now is. However, since he took possession, it has gradually advanced in status as a commercial hostelry and also as a sporting centre, and it now takes a prominent place in these matters in the city. Mr Russell has shown a determined front against low or

ordinary gambling, and he justifiably prides himself on the fact that no cards or dice are ever allowed on his premises. Mr Russell is an enthusiast in coursing, and is an owner of some of the best greyhounds in New Zealand, among them being the champion dog, Shylock, and Stormfiend, whose son (The Fiend) is now in training ft r the principal coursing events in N.Z. Mr Russell is one of the oldest members of Tattersall’s club, Auckland, and at the present time he occupies the important position of treasurer to that institution. In fact there is hardly any national sport in which Mr Russell does not take part ; as a member of the Avondale Jockey Club he has rendered valuable service, and no distressed member of genuine sport has ever appealed for Mr Russell’s sympathy in vain. In conclusion we may say that Mr Russell is a true New Zealander and a member of the Natives Association, and though he cannot forget the traditions of the old Scots, from whom he sprang, be is fully satisfied that the land of his birth (N.Z.) will yet become one of the greatest countries under the Southern Cross, or, for that matter, under the canopy of Heaven.

Dunedin is kicking against the law which requires public-houses to close at 10 o’clock. The Spectator remarks : — “ For about six years Dunedinites have endured the inconveniences, to say nothing of the greater ills, arising from the hotels being forced to close at 10 o’clock. What has the result, been ? On the other hand, the result is remarkable. Huncreds of citizens, many of them scrupulously law-abiding in every other respect, now think no more of gaining an entrance to an hotel between 10 and 11 p.m. to get drinks than they do of walking up to a public fountain and there quenching their thirst. And, to gain this entrance, they will sneak up back

passages, dodge in dark doorways, and then givemysterious knocks on doors and windows, and jo! the way opens and they disappear. The publican, can hardly be blamed" fori this. It. cannot be expected that He will, from an upstair window, deliver nightly harangues on the majesty of the law to thirsty wayfarers at his back door. To do so would be to ruin his ordinary rugular business. Therefore, he chooses between slow ruin and breaking the law, and, bathed in a perspiration of fear of prosecution, conviction, and consequent endorsement of his license, he breaks the law. And the good citizen, fortified by the knowledge that his more fortunate fellow-men in other parts of the colony enjoy a liberty he is denied; and. also partly strengthened by a habit acquired when he had the same privilege, gradually learns to creep with stealthy steps, ‘ after hours,’ up the back entrance to his favourite ‘ pub.’ And the stalwart policemen, stone-blind for the time being, stalks past, like the Levite, on the other side, feeling, no doubt, that such wholesale breaking of the law is too big an undertaking for him to wrestle with.

We have pleasure in drawing attention to the advertisement referring to Richardson’s British Hotel, Lyttelton. The Illustrated Sporting Review and Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette is filed there, a fact which should alike benefit the patrons of the hotel as well as our advertisers.