TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 351, 15 April 1897, Page 11

TRADE TOPICS.

We have much pleasure in drawing attention to the advertisement of the Central Hotel, Lower Hutt, Wellington. The proprietor is Mr Walter King, and his name over the door is a sufficient guarantee of the excellence of the cheer to be obtained within. The sporting travellers, particularly those with horses, will be pleased to notice that Mr King has had new and commodious boxes erected, and those visiting Wellington for the Autumn Meeting should lose no time in securing the boxes they require.

Sergeant Cullen paid a visit to some of the licensed houses in Wanganui on Sunday evening (states the Weekly Chronicle of April 10), and, as a result, we understand there will be a prosecution for Sunday trading. On the night of the 7th inst Innes’ brewery, at Hamilton East, was destroyed by fire. The origin is not known. Mr Innes left about 8 o’clock, and half-an-ln>ur afterwards the building was seen to he in flames. The fire spread rapidly and the whole place was soon in ruins. An outside place, containing a lemonade and soda-water plant, was saved. The building, which was owned by Mr Barton, was insured, but Mr Innes’ brewing plant was uninsured, so that his loss is a severe one.

The census of New Zealand contains a return of some interest, namely, the number of persons engaged in the sale and manufacture of wine, beer, spirits, cordials, etc. :—Hotelkeepers, 1334

males and 204 females; relatives assisting, 157 males, 348 females; manager-clerks,67 males, 11 females; hotel, club, etc., servants, 1136 males, 2075 females ; managers, secretaries, stewards of club-houses, 32 males, 3 females ; barmen, 196 ; barmaids, 210; wine and spirit merchants, 43 males ; assistant ditto, 5 males, 1 female ; clerks, bookkeepers, accountants, travellers, storekeepers, 44 males; cordial merchants, salesmen, 5 males ; brewers, bottlers, 234 males, 4 females • managers, clerks, travellers, 54 males; relatives assisting, apprentices, 18 males; cellarmen, assistant carters, etc., 151 males,'! female ; maltsters and assistants, 118 males ■ distillers, bottlers, 2 males; wine makers, bottlers, 9 males; cordial etc., makers, 293 males, 6 females; clerks, bookkeepers, travellers, 6 male’s; total, 3903 males, 2863 females ; grand total, 6766. The average male person who has waded through the reports of the sittings of the Christchurch Hen Convention, ought to feel several sizes smaller than he did before, and realise how insignificant he really is when sized up by woman —lovely woman. The Hen Convention ladies, bless them, have hardly had a good word to say for poor man, and how even a solitary member of the so called “ sterner sex ” could have had the temerity to visit the Council Chamber while the ladies were speechifying and passing resolutions (many of the said speeches and resolutions being calculated to make wretched man shiver in his shoes) this paper doesn’t know. But it seems to us that if these good ladies should ever succeed in getting their wa,y man will be left. f Unt in the cold, and will, when frozen into subjection, feebly ask for his ‘‘ rights, please”— and devoutly wish he may get them.— Spectator.

An English writer referring to the liquor market reports :—“ Speculation in both old and new whisky has been very rampant throughout the latter half of the year, and prices which went up by pennies during the first six months, bounded up by sixpences in the latter half. Well-known brands are at such a price that there is a danger of blenders leaving them out altogether, and substituting inferior makes. This, too, with the report that eleven new distilleries are in course of erection. Glenlivets, of course, lead the way, and Ardberg and Caol Ila follow, and these had no sooner opened their books with the new make, than their proprietors’ occupation was gone, and ‘ sold out’ was written across their stock books. Prosperity for the Land o’ Cakes Whisky seems to have set in strong ; and a very significant and indeed hopeful feature of the trade is that, with the spread of the English and Englishspeaking people all over the world, their almost national drink in the way of spirits is becoming better known and more extensively known than before.

“ The continentals, too, are beginning to cultivate a taste for whisky in place of brandy, and well known brands are to be seen in most of the hotels and cafes throughout Europe. The Americans, too, especially the upper classes, are acquiring a taste for Scotch whisky, and the consuming possibilities of 70,000,000 inhabitants are enough to make every canny Scotchman chorus the last verse of Bobbie Burn’s ballad— Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand ; And may his great posterity Ne’er fail in old Scotland. Not likely to when the export trade shows some 500,000 gallons increase of last year over 1895. “ In wines of all descriptions last year showed an increase over 1895 of nearly 8 per cent.

French claret led the way with an increase of about 7 per cent, chiefly due to the demand for ordinary luncheon and dinner wine of fail* to good quality. Fine chateau wines are certainly neglected, hence theJow prices that have ruled for some of the favourite growths. The fashion of smoking cigarette or cigar immediately after the menu is completed has led to the supplanting of high-class dessert clarets by Tawny, or vintage ports or Solera sherry. Burgundies appear to be coming to the front again, but what is being continually requisitioned is cheap wines with full body. Certainly last year’s quantity will meet the first point, but not the second unless the wine is loaded to its spoiling.”