TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 438, 15 December 1898, Page 18

TRADE TOPICS.

We wish to inform all hero worshippers of the teetotal persuation that after careful research we have assured ourselves of the fact that Sir Herbert Kitchener, the hero of Omdurman, is not a prohibitionist. On the contrary, he believes in good wine for his own table (when he can get it), and an allowance of grog for his troops.

General satisfaction has been expressed by all classes at the improved regulation of hotel traffic since the granting of the extra hour before closing. The extension has undoubtedly proved a great convenience to the public, and there is every reason to believe that little or no illicit trading is carried on. The result completely falsifies the prophecies of those who opposed the change of hours. Whenever a woman wishes to gain cheap notoriety and has no other means of figuring before the public, she forms herself into a deputation and waits on some poor overworked minister, and insists that a further restriction be placed on the liquor trade. The Premier of Victoria has been having a turn at’ this game lately, and has been petitioned to do everything from shortening the hours for selling liquor to closing up the pubs entirely.

Two old Sydney identities among hotelkeepers passed away a week ago in the persons of Mr Thomas Asche and Mr Frederick Squire Tidswell. The name of the latter was most prominently associated with the Metropolitan Hotel, corner of Castlereagh and King Streets, and Mr Asche was for many years lessee of the Royal in George Street. When Mr Asche gave up the Royal he took over the Imperial in Wynyard Square.

In Victoria considerable trouble has arisen over the complaint that some of the licensed victuallers are in the habit of employing canvassers to solicit orders for the supply of alcoholic liquors in the same way as wine and spirit merchants. We have never as yet had any trouble of that kind in New Zealand, but it may be as well to point out that such trading is illegal. The licensed victualler may supply liquor and deliver it to hospitals, ships, picnics, parties, or anyone at a distance, so long as the sale is completed on his licensed premises.

Fletcher, Humphreys, and Co., of Christchurch, have an excellent exhibit of the “Golden Apple’’ brand of champagne eider on view at the Exhibition building. Good cider is as pleasant to the average palate palate as champagne, and is certainly far better for the health than many of the decoctions consumed under the name of champagne. The cider turned out by Fletcher, Humphreys, and Co. is certainly of a superior quality, and is made from the best picked fruit procurable. It is stated by connoisseurs to be equal to the best Devonshire or Hereford. News comes from Sydney that the old President Lincoln Hotel, in Forbes Street, Woolloomooloo, has been taken over by Mr Thomas Smith, of Paramatta Road, Camperdown, and that it is “to be turned inside out and improved in every way.” Old Sydney Bohemians will recall many a pleasant hour spent in conversation and argument in this old landmark. The writer of this paragraph has many a time foregathered with artists, actors, and writers in the President Lincoln, and between us we have definitely arranged the affairs of the nation, and plotted out a preliminary programme for the millennium, for Woolloomooloo has always been the Prague of Bohemian New South Wales, and somehow or other we don’t like the idea of the President Lincoln being renovated. It will be better remembered in its old “ out-at-elbows” Bohemian garb, when, if the seats were hard, the liquor was good, and if the windows were dirty the company was excellent.

At the. quarterly meeting of the City of Auckland Licensing Committee Sergeant Treanor reported :— “ I beg to report that I do not suspect any publican of Sunday trading, and in this respect there is a vast improvement. Ido not know of any trading after eleven p.m. except the hotel already reported upon some five weeks ago. I might state that the state of things to my mind is solely due to the strict supervision of the police.” We beg leave to disagree with Sergeant Treanor, and claim that it is not due to his inquisitorial espionage, at times brutal in its rudeness, or to the general supervision of the police, but to the desire of the publicans themselves to act in accordance with the new law. ; At the further adjourned meeting held on Monday morning to decide as to whether an occasional license be granted to Michael Foley to sell wine and beer at the Exhibition building, the Magistrate (Mr Brabant) refused to allow of its being issued, on the grounds that the Exhibition was not a place of amusement within the meaning of the Act, and that he would not re-open a case that had once been determined upon by the committee. Mr Nicholson, who apperred for the applicant, stated that he thought he could have the matter brought before the Supreme Court on a mandamus, and if he decided to take this action would endeavour to have it heard in Chambers at an early date.

At the meeting of the Eden Licensing Oommitteee on Monday, Mr Brabant in the chair. Application was made by the licensees of the Masonic and Flagstaff Hotels, Devonport, for an extension of hours till .eleven o’clock. The applications were opposed by the police and by Mr C. E. Button, who presented a petition against the extension, signed by 372 residents. The Mayor of Devonport, Mr J. C. Macky, also opposed. The applicants were represented by Mr Baume. After hearing argument the committeejretired for consultation, returning in a few minutes and making known their intention to grant the extension in both cases, to date from January Ist next.

Mr Brabant seems thoroughly convinced of the fact thaiPthe Exhibition is not a “ place of amusement ’’ in the meaning of the Act. With all due respect for his decision —what is it, then? A place for mournful introspection ? A species of municipal purgatory to which all transgressors against the city by-laws should be forcibly conducted? At this rate we shall expect the sentences at the next Mngistrates’ Court to run somewhat as follows : — “ This is your third conviction for drunkenness. You are sentenced to seven days at the Exhibition,” or, “I cannot see my way to send you to Mt. Eden. The offence is a serious one, and I shall be obliged to make an example of you. You will be sentenced to one month’s attendance at the Exhibition, the first four days in the Choral Hall.” (Convict led out weeping bitterly). x

Although defeated again and again at the polls, although it has been clearly demonstrated that the people of New Zealand are distinctly opposed to prohibition, that party still snarls and foams at the mouth on every convenient occasion. We are reminded of Bunyan’s description of the Giant Pagan in his book of the Pilgrim’s Progress — “He sits by the wayside and grins and snarls at passers-by, but he is old and toothless, and can do no harm.’* We are moved to these remarks by the following resolution passed by the Wanganui Wesleyan Synod : — “ That the Synod records its unaltered conviction that the drink traffic is the cause of the utmost evil to the people of our country, and urge the members and adherents of the Church to renewed efforts to secure its abolition at the prohibition poll of 1899.”

Mr R. French in a letter to the Herald anent the Exhibition Bar, speaks of the “ Shriek of the Licensed Viotuallebs’ Gazette for a bar,” and in referring to a deputation that waited on the Premier, says :— “ The Premier with his usual common sense and shrewdness, put his finger upon the point at issue, and at once stated that ‘ he could not- for a moment countenance the suggestion that the Government should influence the Magistrate in his capacity as chairman of the Liicensing Committee.’ He was also correct in his statement that it. would be said that the purpose of the deputation would be severely condemned "Now, there was no desire on the part of any one connected with the deputation, or on the part of anyone who was in favor of a bar, to even suggest that undue influence be brought to bear on the Magistrate. Mr French, with Gilbertian topsy-turvydom, has got the matter all wrong side up. He is probably not aware of the fact, that in order that refreshments might be served at the Southern Exhibit tion a short bill was put through Parliament. Something similar was wanted here, but we have it on the authority of a member of the Licensing Committee, that the Premier said, the existing law could be got over, and there was no necessity for a special Act. Again, as far as we know, there has not been a * ‘ popular protest ’ ’ against * the opening of a bar, as the majority on the Exhibition Committee were in favor of it, and most of the members of the Licensing Committee excepting the Magistrate and Mr J. J. Craig. The little lady at the Albion is to J popular and well known to need a preliminary description. She might well adopt for her motto, “ semper eadem" (always the same), as her merry reception of her customers never varies— Always merry, always laughing, Whether it be rain or shine ; - Fond of give and take in chaffing, As she serves you with your wine. Whether you be toff or worker, City bred or country lout, So it be you’re not a shirker, When it comes your time to shout, Be quite sure that every party Will be treated just the same, With a greeting brisk and hearty, As he gives his drink a name. So we’re rather fond of Mattie, And we come from near and far, When we know this Hebe, natty, Takes her turn behind the bar.