CHOPS & CHANGES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 446, 9 February 1899, Page 19

CHOPS & CHANGES

Tllir.it still case at Reefton causing some little excitement. The British Treasury will contribute towards compulsory detention in inebriate institutions. A contemporary says that the prohibitionists are about to open their campaign. It has never been closed. Great reception to Mrs Harrison Lee last week. She has taken over the small contract of eon verting Auckland to prohibition. The Campbell and Ehrenfried Company have scored again at the Exhibition, the prizes given being very much in their favor. Mr Masefield refuses to have his name submitted for re-appointment on the Licensing ■Committee. The Trade have a candidate in reserve for the vacancy on the Licensing Committee if he will permit his name to be sent to Wellington. Vincent’s Brewery has undergone a change in the proprietary, Mr F. Hickmott having been admitted as a partner. The transfer of the license from Mr George Seiwood, of the Howick Hotel, to Mr Alfred Ernest Bennett has been completed Mr Charles Augustus Cooper has taken over the Exchange Hotel, Onehunga, from Mrs Agnes Annie Barker. The transfer of the license was granted on. the 6th inst. Tom Taylor, our junior M.H.R , has left for the South, where he intends to carry out a prohibition campaign. He wants to see how things are going on in the Clutha district. In 1888 in Scotland there were distilled 18,159,651 gallons of whisky, and in 1898 the manufacture increased to 33,744,503 gallons, a difference of fifteen and a half million gallons. The shipment of Sanderson’s whisky, mentioned in a previous issue as having arrived, we are informed has proved utterly inadequate to meet the demand. Mrs Harrison Lee. the temperance evangelist, preached at St. John’s Wesleyan Church on Sunday forenoon and at the Pitt Street Wbsleyan •Church in the evening. The Christchurch brewery companies did a particularly brisk business during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Three of the largest firms could not keep pace with the orders which kept flowing in from all parts of the colony. In 1888 there was made in Ireland 11,063,945 gallons of whisky, and in the year ending March, 1898, there were distilled 14,547,708 gallons, an increase of something like three and a half million gallons.

News from Sydney states that the brewing business of Messrs J. T. and J. Toohey is about to be turned into a limited liability company. This is one of the biggest brewing firms in New South Wales.

Trusts and monopolies have been the order of the day in the United States for many years. The latest is a combination of the Cincinnatti breweries. Twenty-three are already included in the deal, as are also two malt houses.

Carl’s Empire Hotel, the sporting rendezvous of Christchurch, is another hotel that has improved lately. The licensee is an enthusiastic cyclist, being captain of the Pioneer Bicycle Club.

The Canterbury Licensed Victuallers’ Association intends holding regular meetings . once. a week during the winter, so as to get things in working order for the next election, campaign, which is fast drawing near. A similar plan of campaign in Auckland should be carried out. The Occidental Hotel, Latimer Square, Christchurch, has been considerably improved during the past month. Host Fleming, since he took charge, has renovated the building, which is now in tip-top order. The Occidental is still a favorite resort for theatrical companies.

Dr Hoskings, late of Christchurch, now of Auckland, is getting up his name in the Queen ■City as a red-hot Prohib. He’s talking just the sort of intemperate temperance that helps the moderates along and excites disgust of Pump tactics. — Spectator. The Licensed Victuallers’ Association picnic will take place in about three weeks. It will partake of the character of a private affair, although friends of the Association will be permitted to purchase tickets of the committee and •other members. Coker’s Hotel, Christchurch, is known throughout New Zealand as being one of the best equipped hotels to be found in the colony. .Mr J. Hatfield, the licensee, is always effecting improvements. and is pleased to receive suggestions from the travelling public. A corresdondent t© the Dunedin Scar in dealing with the prohibition plebiscite vote in Canada states that prohibition means happiness, nobility, and virtue, and that the Trade means misery, degradation, and crime. Rather a large order for the Trade, but then hysteria is a chronic complaint with prohibitionists.

The Rev. J. B. Finlay of Wellington, a member of the New Zealand Alliance, is in Auckland. Although not one of the so-called prohibitionist “regulars” he barracks for his party on all occasions, and goes for the Trade “ baldheaded on general principles. The Richmond Working Men’s Club, situated in one of the suburbs a mile from the centre of Christchurch, has just had a large social room built on the main building. This club is next to the Methodist Church in the district, and needless to say feeling between the. church people .and club members runs high at times.

Business is very brisk in the brewing industry in Christchurch, and all the large companies have been making additions to their already well-equipped establishments. The . Crown Brewery Co., Ward and Co., and Manning and Co. have all enlarged their premises during the past year. One day recently Tommy Taylor, the junior M.H.R, for Christchurch, when speaking near the lamp post in Cathedral Square, stated that the new block of buildings erected by the Crown Brewery Co. would make excellent schoolrooms with a few minor alterations. Mr Taylor does say some funny things sometimes, but generally by accident. There was a good attendance at the genera meeting of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association on Thursday, and matters of considerable interest were discussed. A general opinion was expressed that arrangements be made for a uniform price to be charged for beer and spirits. A committee was appointed to wait on the owners in reference to the matter.

Our Christchurch correspondent writes A fact worth noting is that the president of the Christchurch Working Men’s Club has been a life long total abstainer. Other prominent members of the Club are also abstainers. This should convince the prohibitionists that working men’s clubs are not, as alleged by their party, run by drinkers and used solely as drinking shops.

Mr Edward Knapp, a well-known temperance re form er in New South Whies, and one of the two gentlemen mentioned for selection for the Governorship of Norfolk Island, recently, attempted suicide by cutting his throat. He is in a precarious condition. We always thought prohibition was a species of mania. Mr P. T. Spillane, late of the Railway Hotel, Hastings, has entered into possession of the Taradale Hotel, Taradale- Mr Spillane has ben long and favorably known to the public of Hawke’s Bay, and visitors to Taradale may be certain of being made comfortable at his hostelry, and of obtaining the best liquors procurable for money. The secretary of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association in Christchurch tells me (says our Christchurch correspondent) that the members do not take the amount of interest in the welfare of the association as he would like. The publicans should keep working to hold their own, as the prohibitionists are continually on the warpath, and will score if the publicans don’t wake up. An English statistician has published the result of an inquiry into the quantity of wine, spirits, and beer which is consumed daily by the inhabitants of London. He states that 28,500 quarts of wine, 75,000 quarts of alcoholic beverages, not including beer, and 560,000 half pint glasses or mugs of the last named article are partaken of daily. Californian wines have made great progress in Great Britain during recent years. In the first six months of the year 364,564 gallons in bulk and 160 cases were sent across the Atlantic. Of this quantity 55 cases and 168,553 gallons in bulk came to England. The best European customer for this wine is Germany, who took 105 cases and 185,885 gallons in bulk, the remainder being divided principally between Belgium and Switzerland. Scarcely any Californian wine goes to France. A fair quantity, however, goes to Australia and some comes to New Zealand.