CHOPS & CHANGES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 453, 30 March 1899, Page 19

CHOPS & CHANGES

Mick Walsh promises his patrons another smoke concert in the near future. The Royal Mail Hotel has become a very popular resort for theatrical people. Extensive alterations are still going on’at the Great Northern Brewerv Khvber Pass. Maurice O’Connor is making improvements in the Waverley Hotel, Lower Queen;Street. Inspector Cullen has’created a new brand Jof “fizzgig.” Trouble in Wanganui over on Jthe Trade. A Melbourne exchange states that the “ Victorian Licensing Act bristles with sharp points that prod the licensed victualler.” Neatly put. The Melbourne Press claims that though drunkenness is decreasing with the male sex, it is increasing with the female sex in Victoria. J' Our magistrates in Auckland might take a lesson from Magistrate Kettle in condemning illegal methods of attempting to secure convictions. Who is it that is trading illegally in Auckland at the present time ? One hears a lot of it, but it seems very difficult to fix upon the culprit. Hotel properties are increasing in value in the South, and on the West Coast proprietors are pretty generally making improvements. The new Royal Oak Hotel is being built on a scale that will make it, when finished, one of the leading hotels in New Zealand. Mr Joseph Mcßae, before leaving for America and the Old Country, will spend a brief holiday in Sydney and Melbourne. The publicans in the South Island are settiug us an example by organising to meet their opponents with a bold front. Mrs Harrison Lee has succeeded m forming a a trong temperance organisation in one of the . suburbs. I can hardiy compliment the police on their method of securing convictions in sly-grog selling .' cases. Mick Walsh says he intends giving a few more smoke concerts before he leaves the state of single blessedness. The elevator in the Waverley Hotel has proved a great convenience to the patrons of that excellent hostelry in many ways. An excellent letter on “ Waste of money in the Customs Department” appears in the Herald of March 21. It is by Francis Simpson, and deals with excise matters. There is considerable agitation at present amongst the Trade on the question of a uniform price of fourpence for pints of beer sold over the bar. Rumored that a number of licenses will be refused at the annual meeting of the Licensing Bench unless a little more care is taken by a few of the Trade who shall be nameless here. Rumored that Walter Bentley, who was recently defeated as a candidate for the Queensland Parliament; - intends going into the hotel business. He ought to do well. At the sale of privileges for the autumn meeting of the Auckland Trotting Club, on Friday last, the inside booth was purchased by Mr J. Donovan for £2B. A committee meeting of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association of Auckland was held on Monday last. The annual meeting will be held today (Thursday). With hardly any exceptions Sunday trading seems to have died out in Auckland. The recent ▼ague reports of the police seem to have frightened many possible real offenders. A man may, under pressure of poverty, accept the role of a petty spy for money, but the man who does it con amove is a peculiar product of the nineteenth century New Zealander. Mr W. H. McKay, who has been so popularly associated with The Buffet, Wanganui, for the past three years, "has disposed of his interests to Mrs Kemp, of Wanganui, and late of Auckland Mrs Harrison Lee, who came to Auckland a short time back as a temperance missionary, will open her prohibition crusade in Wanganui on April 6. The additions to the Commercial Hotel (Mr A. Kidd’s) are very nearly furnished, and will be open for habitation in about a fortnight. The new dining-room, which is virtually complete, is a fine, lofty, and well-lighted apartment. A great many members of the Trade who have been laying back on their oars and taking things easy for the past year, are beginning to wake up, and realise that there is a big fight coming towards the end of 1899. Michaels, of the Wynyard Arms, thinks that some of that Exhibition surplus ought to come his way for helping the Executive out of a nasty fix and supplying their patrons with good liquor and beer. There have been very few applications for transfers of licenses recently considering the time •f the year. People prefer remaining where they are until the elections are over and they know how they stand. There seems to be a tendency amongst publij aans in the outlying districts of Auckland to ; amalgamate with the Association. I think they are commencing to realise the imminence of the storm that is hanging over them. What sort of a complex being can the young party be who called for drinks after coming from church left a bundle of tracts, and then hurried Io the police station to report the success of his work.

The Panama Hotel, corner of Hardy and Collingwood Streets, Nelson, is one'of the most popular hostelries in that charming little city. It is at present conducted by Mr Morgan O’Brien, late of the Railway Hotel, Richmond. Why don’t our prohibitionist friends turn their attention to the rooting out of the “ yellow agony,” with its concomitant evils of opium intoxication and the prostitution of young girls ? There is a field for them to labor in to some purpose if the reports from Wellington be true. When are all these improvements with reference to fire escapes going to be made. I notice that although the Licensing Committees throughout the colony have deprecated the present system, and have advocated reforms, nothing as yet has been done. The Railway Hotel at Palmerston North has been recently thoroughly renovated, and is now in every way fitted to meet the requirements of the travelling public. Mr M. Hogan is in command, and will be pleased to again welcome his old friendsThe British Hotel and stables at Gisborne were totally destroyed by fire at midnight on Thursday of last week. Considerable difficulty was experienced in preventing it from spreading to adjoining buildings. The building was not insured.

“You may stand down.” As His Worship gave utterance to these words with a resigned air, he typified in one sentence his contempt for the witness and his incredulity as to his evidence. It was a nasty jar, but it was lost on the recipient.