CHOPS & CHANGES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 479, 28 September 1899, Page 19

CHOPS & CHANGES

Mr J. Hawkins, of Opunake, has disposed of 1 Middleton’s Hotel to Mr Molloy, formerly of the Queen’s Hotel, Christchurch. Magistrate Northcroft’s return to Auckland will he appreciated by a number of his old : friends. Tom Meehan says that the next prohibited person, male or female, that gets into his bar by any means, will be dynamited even if he has to stand his trial for manslaughter. Tommy Buxton is making several alterations in the Shamrock Hotel, Wellesley Street, and is building up a good trade there. His old friends will be glad to see him in harness again. The Licensed Victuallers’ Association of Canterbury is now on a sound footing. The general meetings are well attended, and members are evincing more interest in trade politics. There is some talk of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association giving a social evening in the shape of a smoke concert, when Trade and political matters can be amicably talked over. In response to a number of inquirers, 1 am in a position to state that the Trade has not. yet pledged itself to support any particular Parliamentary candidate. The Licensed Victuallers’ Association is making arrangements for the formation of a cricket team to compete with other elevens during the coming season. Astbury, a prohibition orator of the leatherlunged and fog-horn voice variety, has started a campaign in Hawera. He hails from Eltham, but is as yet unknown to fame. It is urgently to be hoped that when the proposed new Licensing Bill comes in next session, discretionary power will be given magistrates to inflict fines without endorsing licenses. The Christian Worker advises Mayor Goldie to immediately see that the bye-law with reference to public meetings in the city thoroughfares is replaced by one “that cannot possibly be construed to prevent good work being done.” W. W. Collins, who has been delivering lectures in various parts of the colony against prohibition, is again back in Christchurch. He will be one of the candidates for Christchurch, and is sure to poll heavily this time. Since Barrister Baume opposed the granting of that Golden Cross license in conjunction with Mr Miller, of the Thames, Brother Billy Richardson is anxious to claim him as a convert to prohibition, but the clever pleader is not taking any. Premier Seddon has definitely stated that he will not deal with the liquor question this session, claiming that it would be madness on the eve of a general election to bring in a new Bill dealing with the subject. I thought when Mr Morrison sold out of the Metropolitan Hotel he would not be out of the Trade long, and am pleased to see that he is doing well at the Criterion ill Albert Street. The trade can ill afford to lose men of his type. -■ W. W. Collins has been carrying on a strong anti-prohibition campaign in the Taranaki district. When is he coming to Auckland to have a set-to with Brother Billy Richardson ? Collins is rather logical than vituperative, but a dispute between him and noisy William would not be without elements of interest. Billy Lynch, who gets a surfeit of prohibition oratory every Sunday night opposite his hotel, was found last Sunday evening about eight o’clock disconsolately wandering about the Queen Street Wharf with two tracts in his hand—one denouncing drink from a Catholic, and the other from a Protestant, standpoint. On being accosted and asked to explain his broken-hearted appearance, he replied: “Faith they’ll drive me out of my head between them. If I stay in the house they talk at me and my little shebeen, and if I come out, with a cry of ‘ That’s him,’ they rush me with this kind of reading matter.” A short time back Macdermott, who is making himself very prominent as an amateur temperance spouter at the Firebell meetings, made a grave charge against a certain hotel. Needless to say the charge was proved to be a gross exaggeration. Now, we can understand Brother Richardsoii who has undertaken the role of clown in the prohibition harlequinade. He does it for pay, and although there may be nicer ways of making a living, still chacun a son gout. But Macdermott, whose legitimate occupation is in connection with a local journal, is apparently making his first appearance as “super” either to satisfy a craving desire for notoriety or out of what Artemus Ward would call “nateral cussedness.” I would advise this lively young gentleman to bank his fires and go slow or he may possibly come a cropper. The Reverend William Ready, who holds publicans in abhorrence, says that the publican and the Church member who both vote for the continuance of the traffic are equally guilty in the sight of God. The Reverend William and his ilk are only too ready to make remarks of this kind which, to a man who holds different opinions, are little short of blasphemous. This “ I and God ” business is becoming just a little too common nowadays and wants checking. We put up with a bit of it from the German Kaiser because his disease decidely wants treatment, and then he is a good way off too. But we decidedly object to the malady spreading in the North Island. The arguments (so called) of the average prohibitionist orator are bad enough already, but when he tries to impress the public with the idea that he has made private arrangements with the Deity in regard to the coming election it is a shade too strong.