TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 479, 28 September 1899, Page 18

TRADE TOPICS.

Draper Spedding still utilises the Sunday night prohibition meetings at the firebell as a cheap vehicle for advertising his hosiery. In the reign of Edward 111. all the brewers were wonen, and when the men first began to engage in the occupation it was thought so strange that they were called men brewers. What is the difference between voting No License and Prohibition ? There seems to be some doubt in the minds of the New Zealand Anglican clergy. It is estimated that in the United Kingdom no fewer than 70,000 girls are employed in hotels and public houses. Rather a big contingent of unemployed to throw on the market if prohibition became law.

I have pleasure in announcing the engagement of Mr Eliot Davis, of the firm of Hancock and Co., the well-known brewers, to Miss Stella Alexander, of this city. “ Ally’s many friends in the Trade will unite with us in congratulating him on the event,

At last we shall get the truth undistorted by prohibition lecturers. A parliamentary return has been ordered showing the number of first convictions for drunkenness, showing the age, sex,, and nationality of offenders. Thus the Queensland Figaro-.— ln Ninevah they brewed the best beer from barley 7090 years ago, the receipt has fortunately been kept and will probably be transmitted to the days when Puritan editors and prohibitionist plungers will be rotten and forgotten.

An American Magistrate has decided that a railway refreshment-room is not a licensed house within the meaning of the Act. This will prove a boon both to prohibited persons and to the publicans who so anxiously desire their continued absence.

Another instance of the style of domiciliary visiting indulged in by the police comes to hand, this time from Mr Ryan, of the United Service Hotel. A Sunday or two ago two policemen in plain clothes knocked, and, after hunting up. the porter, asked if they could possibly get a drink. He replied that they could not, as he was not allowed to serve on Sunday, and started to close the door, when one of the pair ordered him to leave the door open, as they were the police and demanded entrance. This kind of thing is becoming insufferable. If a man trades illegally after having pledged himself not to, by all means let him be punished; but the system pursued by the police of tempting a man to commit a breach of the law, in order to bring a prosecution against him, is unworthy of the authorities of an English speaking country.

Publicans throughout Auckland are complainin g that it is almost impossible to avoid serving prohibited persons at times. The trick is for the prohibited person to wait until the bar is doing a brisk business, and then to either hide behind the crowd or linger in the hall until a friend orders the drink and surreptitiously hands it over. Most hotels in town, by their construction, render it difficult to obviate the practice.

Mr T. Knowles, the popular proprietor of Knowles’ Hotel, Opunake, has been in Auckland during the last few days. He has been up to the Hot Lakes for the benefit of his health, and has returned very much the better for his trip. He has enjoyed his holiday immensely and is quite impressed with the virtues of the Rotorua springs. Mr Knowles has met heaps of friends in Auckland, and they are well pleased to find that he has recovered his health and spirits.

The prohibitionists are apparently hard at work trying to catch the unwary publican in the slightest slip he may unintentionally make. The following will serve as an illustration of their method of working. A few days ago a little chap about ten years of age hung about the Albion Hotel in Wellesley Street until the bar was pretty full, and then suddenly rushed in and asked to be served with sixpence worth of beer. Luckily, he accosted the proprietor who asked him his age. Although the reply was satisfactory enough, the lad’s appearance was not, and the landlord refused to serve him. The boy was watched when he left the hotel, and was seen to run across the street and report to a well dressed individual who was recognised as a member of the prohibitionist party, and a barracker for Richardson.

After a month of oratorical fireworks the prohibitionists in the Taranaki district have become quiescent, being evidently fairly exhausted 1 The speeches of Mr W. W. Collins, the well-known lecturer, seemed to have had a splendid effect throughout the district, and the chances of prohibition being carried in any one of three electorates are becoming remoter. The sensible members of the community are awaking to the fact that considerable principle from the standpoint of the liberty of the subject is involved in the question.

Bishop Potter, of Minnesota, U.S.A., gives his opinion of prohibitionists and prohibition somewhat as follows; —“ Prohibitionists are arrogant, ignorant, and unscrupulous; holding one meagre fragment of truth to their eyes, and denying great fundamental facts in human nature. Total abstinence from alcohol so far from being an infallible guarantee that the abstainer possesses all possible virtues, very often induces immoderate indulgence in sensual, selfish, hypocritical, and Pharisaical vices, to which the man who drinks in moderation never stoops.”—Good old Bishop !

The publicans and the parsons have very little in common with each other, and, as a rule, the sky-pilots oppose the vendors of fire-water when • ever an occasion offers. A striking exception to this rule was, however, made in the Freemantle Licensing Court recently, when three strict temperance clergymen combined with the Freemantle Licensed Victuallers’s Association in opposition to an applicant for a wine and beer license at North Freemantle. The expounders of the Gospel rendered valuable assistance to the publicans in this case, and, of course, publicans were duly thankful.

There was a bit of fun on the outgoing Sydney mail boat on Monday last, when a popular barmaid left for a couple of months holiday in Australia. The local Johnnies rolled up in great fettle, and when at last the steamer did get away the conversation between the bereaved ones on the wharf and the departing hebe was something in this style. “ Don’t forget to wire us the winner of the Cup, Mattie.” “Right old man, yon shall have the first news,” and “ .mind you fix up that Federation question,” which brought a faint musical reply over the water of “I might do a little individual Federation on my own before I come back.”

The case brought against Mrs Luks for opening a few minutes before six o’clock savours more of persecution than prosecution. With prosecutions brought against publicans for selling after hours I have no fault to find. They pledged themselves to keep the law in that respect when the eleven o’clock extension was granted, and as a rule the promise has been rigidly adhered to. Everyone connected with the retail trade knows the necessity of giving a bar a thorough airing in the morning before the tide of customers commences to come in, and the purely technical breach of the law committed by serving an early customer a few minutes before the clock strikes six is surely not worthy of punishment. These irritating pinpricks due to the prohibition party are typical of their style of warfare.

Tommy Taylor, M.H.R., asks whether it is true that during the visit of Lord Ranfurly to Raratonga the British Resident there issued a proclamation cancelling all prohibition orders issued up to 27th April, 1898, on the ground that the Governors visit was a period of rejoicing. The Wellington Critic comments thusly: “The Governor’s visit was ‘a period of rejoicing.’ Mr Taylor’s enquiry is pertinent and logical. If it is wrong to razzle - dazzle, the presence of a Governor, even though he be a. five lord, can’t make the wrong right. Moreover, in the ingenuous mind of the Raratongan savage the idea of a British Governor will hereafter be inevitably associated with unlimited square-gin, forty-rod whisky, or tanglefoot extracted from oranges. The consequence will be that the Raratongans will be perpetually praying for the advent of a Ranfurly with all the fervour with which a droughty back-block’s district in Australia prays tor rain.” The supplication of a devout Cook Grouper .may therefore hereafter run, “ Give us this day our daily Ranfurly.” ,

Billy Richardson is very much inclined to indulge in a big bluff whenever he thinks that, there is the least chance of its coming off, but unfortunately for him he is occasionally “ called down,” when he fails ignominiously to scoop the pool. Salmon called him down once on that horsepond bluff, but I haven’t heard of his paying the wager yet. A short time back he had another call which was just about as disastrousas the one referred to above. It seems that Richardson made the statement that he could walk from the Firebell to the Wharf on any evening after eleven o’clock and count over twenty drunken men in Queen Street, and besides that he would find every public house open and doing trade after hours. A prominent local merchant took up the speaker’s challenge and offered to accompany him on any night he chose. Richardson was obliged to come up to time, and so one night not long ago they started. House after house was visited, but all were closed and dark, and in addition not one solitary drunk rolled up to cheer the lecturer’s heart. As they got further down Queen Street he became more and more disturbed, he peered in every direction for theconsoling sight of only one belated roisterer, but none turned up. His nostrils quivered in a vain scent for the flavour of alcohol, and no thirsty bona fide traveller ever longed more earnestly for the cheery sight of a bar doing business than did the contemner of the traffic. At last his earspricked up and his eyes brightened as two young men, talking rather loudly, came up the street arm in arm, but alas close inspection proved them to be intoxicated by nothing stronger than a heated discussion on politico. The weary jaunt was continued for some time longer, but thesearch was a fruitless one, and satisfied finally that the “stars in their courses had fought against him.” William finally gave it up. It was really too bad to disappoint him so severely, but then, he shouldn’t make such rash statements.