TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 407, 12 May 1898, Page 16

TRADE TOPICS.

Messrs Dwan Bros., hotel brokers, Willis St., Wellington, report the following sales : —Mount Egn ont Hotel, Midhirst, to Mr J. G. Colville, late of s Carterton ; Bunnythorpe Hotel, Bunnythorpe, to Mr Symon Glogoskie ; Tenui Hotel, Tenui, to Mr I'. D. Thompson, late of the Empire Hotel, Masterton ; Taueru Hotel. Taueru, to Mr K. Mclntosh ; Makakahi Hotel, Makakahi, to Captain North, late of the s.s. Waihi; Marine Parade Hotel, Whakataki, to Messrs Parsons and Williamson, late of the Wairarapa ; Grand National Hotel, Petone, to Mr W. Biggs, contractor, Wellington ; Pahautanui Hotel, Pahautanui, to Mr R. Saunders, late of Rangitikei ; and the Royal Hotel, Thorn don Quay, Wellington, to Mr E. J. Searl, well-known in the Wairarapa. The old White Hart Hotel, corner of Spring and Bourke-streets, Melbourne, was the scene of a little contretemps one Saturday night, or early Sunday morning last month. It appears that Constable Hallet, on special Sunday trading duty, in plain clothes, knocked at the door, which was opened by a barman, who would not allow the constable to enter, as his orders from the landlo-d were to allow.no strangers in. At the same time the barman slammed the door, and jammed a link on the constables watch chain. This constituted .an assault in the eyes of the law, and the barman was brought before the District Court and fined £6, the bench regretting they could not inflict imprisonment So much for doing your duty to your employer—a little more, and probably this barman would have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. The Municipal Association of Victoria is taking steps to get what it calls a more equitable distribution of license fees amongst the municipalities. The Treasurer also contemplates taking £lO,OOO from the licensing fund to make provision for the aged destitute. This fund is formed from the fees, and is solely intended to be used as compensation to publicans and others for the closing of their houses through a local option vote. The fund now stands at £60,000. The Trade will not object in the least to thus providing for the aged poor, but should not the teetotal bodies also contribute in the same direction ?

Near Gundagai, in N.S.W., there is a company working to develop a mineral field. A considerable number of men are employed, and to stop sly-grog selling a “Workingmen’s Club” has been formed. One of the miners conceived the idea of buying the drink wholesale by pooling their cash and retailing to each other at first cost. The plan caught on. A Hessian tent was erected; the lounges are kerosene cases, and pannikins take the place of tumblers and wine glasses. The entrance fee to the club is £l, and, though socialistic in its idea, it has degenerated into a species of capitalism. Every night the place is crowded with drinkers, and now the manager of the company is trying to have it suppressed. He says it is doing more harm than would sly grog shanties. A licensed house, he says, would be a boon. In such a place prohibition is is a hypocritical farce, and no better plan exists than the licensing of a hotel according to law. Even the club system fails.

The South Australian Customs receipts for the nine months ending on 31st March last show a decrease of £32,000. In contrast to this, the beer tax gives a heavy increase. What on earth would civilised Government do for revenue were it not for the liquor trade ? Great Britain maintains her vast navy and expensive army entirely from that revenue. The people who drink—alcohol, that is—pay for our ironclads and our bayonets, for our bluejackets and our red coats. They keep guard and extend the empire. What does the teetotaller do in that direction, who boasts that alcoholic liquors never pass his lips ? A vote will shortly be taken in Mildura, the Victorian prohibition settlement, to decide whether or not the district should come under the Licensing Act. If so, it is proposed to establish hotels on the Gothenburg system. This means that the municipality will “ run” the hotels, and take the profits. A witness before the Police Commission was asked the question, “ Are you a prohibitionist ? ” His reply should be a motto for the teetotallers, for he answered, “ No, I am a total abstainer, but I am also a man.” A blatant lecturer on the evils of drink, a man who oscillates between too much and too little, was seen lately in a leading hotel drinking one of the much-advertised tonics, many a time and oft. At the time a huge bundle of MSS for a teetotal lecture bulged out his breast pocket. Considering the that some of these tonics are stronger far than Colonial or British beer, what is to be said of the consistency of such a man ? Like most of the prophets of cold water, he and many others of the fraternity bow a frequent knee to Baal. Sometimes justice is not altogether blind when licensed victuallers are concerned (states the Melbourne Sportsman). On a Sunday early last month the police entered the Colao Hotel and found a man there with a glass of shandygaff in his hand. The.licensee told the constables that the man had represented himself as a bona fide traveller,' and, in compliance with the Act, she served him with a drink. This statement the alleged traveller repeated to the police. The latter soon found that the man, though a newcomer to the district, actually, resided next door to the hotel. Then, instead of charging the licensee with Sunday trading, the man was proceeded against for representing himself to be a bona fide traveller. The case came before the

local police court recently, and has been adjourned until May 13th in order to get a necessary witness. , \ At the Magistrate’s Court, Coromandel, on Thursday last, three charges were laid against a storekeeper named Vetter, of sly grog selling at Opitonui. The case was surrounded with a considerable'degree of interest, owing to the fact - that an unfortunate man McDevitt had, according to the evidence given at the inque-t, partaken of several glasses of whisky on Vetter’s premises on the night of his last being seen alive, his body having been picked up several days afterwards -/ in the adjacent Opitonui River. A large amount • of evidence was taken, Vetter acknowledged to - ■ having dispensed the liquor," the line of defence taken up by Mr McGregor, his solicitor, being that, having opened a general store a few days . previously, he was merely entertaining his friends. Vetter, however, admitted that one of the men present on that occasion had paid 2s. This, he supposed, the man had done so as not to appear to be “ sponging.” The magistrate fined defendant £lO, and costs amounting to £3 14s, or in.: default 14 days’ imprisonment. Defendant’s solicitor asked for a month’s grace. Mr Bush would grant no grace whatever. He had on a previous occasion fined a man £5 for an offence; ’= and had given time, but that defendant had not yet turned up. He did not intend to be had a second time. The money was paid into Court at a later ; : stage. ' ' . ■ , ' ’