CHOPS & CHANGES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XI, Issue 527, 30 August 1900, Page 19

CHOPS & CHANGES

The new tariff is meeting with much adverse comment on the part of wholesale merchants and grocers'. The; Women’s Christain Temperance Union want the hotels closed on the day of the proclamation of peace in the Transvaal Mr J. A. Jagger of the Warkworth Hotel has sold out to’Mr H. Kerr, who assumes possession ■on the 10th prox.

A correspondent in one of the contingents, writing from Johannesburg, says there are no prohibitionists there.

Judge : “ Why did you steal this gentleman’s purse?” Prisoner: “I thought the change would do me good.”

The Rev. F. W. Isitt is admitted to the press gallery in the House, in his capacity as editor and reporter of the prohibitionist newspaper, Mr W. S. Montgomery, ol Karangahake, is making improvements to his bar, commercial rooms, and cellar. •Mr E. Basting, of the Criterion Hotel, Paeroa, has put new ventilators into the house, a/n~ made other improvements 'for the comfort of his guests. There'are tea drunkards, there have been cases of delirium tremens from tea drinking. By chewing tea leaves people can become thoroughly intoxicated. So says a Yankee doctor. The Thames Navals have been presented with -two silver flasks by Messrs Campbell Ehrenfried ■Coy. The flasks are to be given as trophies at the next shooting competition.

The many friends of Mr J. J. Donovan, the popular host of the Aurora Hotel, will be glad to hear that he is about again, and progressing very favourably after his recent attack of rheumatism.

Exporters in London have notified their colonial agents that the prices of English ales and stouts will be increased. This is owing to the extra cost of the materials used in- the bottle trade.

The new bar and commercial room in the Tramway Hotel, Kafangahake, have been finished. Visitors will find that the proprietor, Mr W. E. Ryan, is keeping pace with the times, and is doing everything possible for the comfort of his patrons. • Pewter-pot lifters in the East End of London are very daring and numerous. Quite recently one man was charged at the Thames Police Court, and he had some 20 pots in his possession, some bearing the names of houses scattered fairly widely. The Te Puke hotel has been considerably improved since Mr Kenealy took possesion. A new billiard-room has been erected, and a billiard table procured from Auckland. Ten new bedrooms have been erected, and also a fine large balcony which will greatly add to the appearance of the building, Mr E H. Pilling, of the Sterling Hotel, Waihi, has made considerable alterations since taking charge of this hotel. He has ™w a first-class up-to-date bar, and has had the billiard room done up. He has also added some new bedrooms, and effected sundry improvements to the stables and yard.

From September the Ist the telegraph offices at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Greymouth, Invercargill, Napier, Oamaru, Timaru, Wanganui, and Wellington, will be open continuously, day and night, Sundays and holidays included. Members of Parliament are henceforth to be allowed to send telegrams of 36 words for sixpence, and a penny for every four words after. The public rate remains the same as at present.

To cope with the steadily growing trade of the Mercer Hote, Mr Haslet, the proprietor has had -to add twelve bedrooms and a billiard-room to the house. The Mercer Hotel has always been a favourite resort for honeymoon couples. During the shooting season, when the house is nearly always full of duck shooters, this honeymooning has become rather embarrasipg. Instead of finding ducks early in the morning the shootists -find turtle doves late at night. Hence the extra bedrooms. No doubt, the shooters will now -feel more comfortable, and not so much in the -way.

One night last week a middleaged men went -into the High-street police station, apparently under the influence, and requested the lockupkeeper to arrest him and lock him up on a charge .of vagrancy. He stated that he had come from Dunedin, and had spent aU his money and had none left. He badly wanted a night’s lodging, . and had no money to pay for it. The lockupkeeper, whose ideas of drunkenness are as hazy . as his betters, did not think he was drunk enough to lock up, and declined to give the applicant free lodgings. The latest definition in .a case in the South, recently, is, “So long as a man could call for a drink, come to his meals, and walk, up to his bed, he did not consider a man drunk. Inside the cover of the Gram, a social magazine -■ founded by English prisoners in Pretoria, are advertisements that are devoted to champagne, ' being accompanied by a humorous drawing, m which the President’s feet, head, and umbrella ; and a champagne bottle arfe united: Krug (er) 1900. The fashionable vintage. This is a mature wine, with a good deal of body. When first introduced to the public was full of gas, which, however, is fast evaporating. Unlike other champagne wines, Kruger 1900 should be . sent to a warm place and kept there, in a month’s time ewe expect to be able to sell this wine at a merely nominal price. — Roberts, Kitchener and Co,, wine merchants. —Melbourne .

Lieutenant Ward, of the Onehunga Rifles, who expressed his view in the public press, over his official signature, on the subject of introducing liquor at a social held by his corps, has been suspended, the regulations not permitting the ex • pression of opinions relating to the service, being made officially.