TRADE TROPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XI, Issue 512, 11 October 1900, Page 18

TRADE TROPICS.

• Messrs Hancock and Go’s traveller is now known in the North as Bismark-Longdill. The addition of a branch post office in the Strand Arcade will be a great boom to business people and others in the upper end of the city.

Travellers who have recently “ done ” the North, report the roads as indescribable, that is, when talking to a lady.

I am the grateful recipient of some very interesting advertising novelties from those leviathan distillers, Messrs Dunville and Co, Ltd, of Belfast. At a recent temperance convention held at Gore, the Rev Mr Elliott said that sly grogselling was very rampant in the Clutha electorate, there being at least a dozen places where liquor was sold illegally. The most extensive wine yeildiug region of Victoria, Australia, is the Au'heralen district, situated in the Murray Valley. With a produci'on of 250 gallons to the acr*, the profit amounts to quite £l2 per acre.

'. He could not stand it.—Favourite Waiter : ,‘ I’m going to leave here when this week is up !” “ Why, you get good pay, don’t you, and tips beside?/ “ Yes, about the same as everywhere. But they don’t give us time to go out to meals—we have to feed here !”

It’s an ill wind that blows ho one gooi. The Edinburgh correspondent of t; e Financial News declares that the quality of the 1899-1900 whisky is of the besi, and attributes the fact to some extent to the bel ter attention given to distillation , which the decreased output has permitted of. So that the consumer his benefitted from the distiller’s troubles.

A daring attempt at burglary was made at an early hour one morning recently at the Post Office Hotel, on Fern Tree Gully Road, 17 miles from Melbourne. The proprietor, Fred Gessner, was ordered by three men to bail up, and he refused, and there was a brisk interchange of shots, without anj one being hit. When the burglars made off, Gessner went in pursuit, but failed to stop them. At the Gore Court recently, a prohibited person, who had been brought under the influence of a prohibition order some twenty years ago, said: ‘‘My experience of prohibition orders is that they are the ruination of man. I was the first one in New Zealand to take out a prohibtion order against myself, and I think it is the worst thing a man can do.” Attached to the official department of the brewery of Guinness, Son and Co., Limited, Dublin, is a post office, where upwards of 300,000 letters are received in the year, the annual cost for stamps amounting to between £3500 and £4OOO There are 15 locomotives, 171 drays and carts, 153 horses, 9 steamboats, and 2 mot-r cars also attached to the establish ment.

A couple of old ladies who held str.ct views with regard to the “ Drink Question ” actually refused a legacy of £lO,OOO which a cousin in a brewery trade bequeathed to them It was pointed out that the money could be cevoted to charitable purposes, but no, they would have nothing to do with ‘‘devil’s peonies,” they de cla: ed. Accordingly, the money descended to a profligate nephew, who soon made short work of it.

A Millionaire Distiller. —The will of Mr James Craig, of Belfast, Ireland, a member of the firm of Dunville Co , Limited, distillers, of that city, who died on April 20th last, has been proved at £1,032,445 2s 3d, including £665,078 10s 5d in Eng and. The local agents for the firm of Dunville and Co., Limited, are the Campbell, Ehrenfried Company, Limited.

The fact of many beer consumers being away at the front is given as one of the reasons for .the recent falling off of the beer trade at Home. Beer exports from the United Kingdom increased by over three thousand barrels in .July. Large quantities were shipped to South Africa. The brewing trade has been seriously affected at Home by the increased taxation of a. shilling a barrel, imposed on account of the war in South Africa.

The well-known commercial, Thomas Calder, representative for Speight s Brewery, died suddenly on Friday last at Harding’s Masonic Hotel, Gisborne, from an epileptic fit.

Sir Wilfred Lawson, the teetotal apostle, who has represented Cockermouth, Cumberland, for 14 years in the English Parliament, was last week defeated by the Conservative candidate, Mr Randles, by a majority of 209. "Mr D. McKay has taken over the Commercial Hotel, Whangarei, and has renovated the entire establishment. Considerable alterations and additions have been effected, and the Commercial is now a very popular hostelry. Mr Samuel McMahon, the new proprietor of the Whangarei Hotel, Whangarei, announces that the hotel has just been rebuilt in brick. It has been refurnished throughout, and is now replete with every comfort. tfgl regret to learn that Mr Hugh Wallace, the popular country traveller for Messrs L. D. Nathan and Co, met with a painful accident? last week from the kick of a horse. It is hoped he will speedily recover. Mr Jno. Davidson, of the Kaukapakapa Hotel, retired from active business on the Ist inst. Mr and Mrs H B. Melton, late of Mangawai, assumed possession on that date, I hope they will meet with every success. At the Shamrock Hotel, Bendigo, Frank Wallace, 35, described himself as a Melbourne printer, was arrested for “ going through ” the pockets of Mr Williom Voss, also staying at the Shamrock. Wallace’s haul comprised a gold watch and chain, gold locket, two diamond rings, two gold rings, and £5 14s in cash. Total value, £5O. Mr Voss caught Wallace “in the werry act.” Stinking spirit casks may be purified, and even rendered fit for holding wine, without any great expense, ihe injection of steam into tbe cask for half-an hour, and subsequently a copious rinsing with cold water, will generally effect the purpose. Where steam is not available, the cask should be first of all thoroughly washed internally and externally with cold water, and then with two gallons of cold water ir side, to which two gallons of dilute sulphuric acid are subsequently added. In employing the latter method, the operator must not stand too near the bung hole, when introducing the sulphuric acid, as the sudden ebullition of the liquid may produce a squirt and a scald.

Have the readers of the London L.V.G., I wonder, ever heard of “ Baumfum.” If not I may at once explain that it is another name for whisky. Two old Jews in Manchester, one named Seltzer and the other named Eimmel, or Kimmelfield —good old names these for i licit whisky dealers—have, it appears, been carrying on a fine trade in this article under the guise of refreshment-house keepers. They took care to have their establishments half a mile apart; but one adjoined the synagogue and did a roaring business, not only on week days, but on Sundays. The other Sunday morning thirty men were seen to enter and leave Kimmelfield’s house in thirty minutes before breakfast, and eleven men were found in the house, one being drunk. Kimmeifield has been fined £2O and and cos's, and Seltzer £5 and coats. There will be no difficulty in paying these amounts, and Kimmel and Seltzer may be expected soon to be on the war-path again.

The general public, and more especially those who travel, like to hear of the various hosts and hostesses whom they have met or may meet, and will therefore be interested in the following changes, brought about by sales of hotel properties, just effected by Messrs Dwan Bros :—Mr T. Kelly’s interest in the Princess Theatre Hotel, Wellington, to Mr Thos. Wilkinson, late of the Waitotara Hotel; Mr John Simpson’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Central Hotel, Otaki, to Mr W. J. Holdcroft, late of the County Hotel, Stratford ; the lease and furniture of Woodlands Hotel, Invercargill, to Mr Henry Johnston, late Waverley; Mr John Curran’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Thistle Inn Hotel, Wellington, to Mr James Kerney, late of the Trafalgar Hotel, Greymouth ; Mr J H. Percival’s interest m the lease and furniture of the Telegraph Hotel, Otaki, to Mrs de Vere, late of the Ship Hotel, Nelson ; the freehold of the Tauera Hotel, Masterton, te a Wellington firm ; Mr Nicholson’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Record Reagn Hotel, Gisborne, to Mr George Any on, late of the Alfredton Hotel; Mr Joseph Wareham’s interest in the lease and furniture of Barrett’s Hotel, Wellington, to Mr George Dennis, late of the Clarendon Hotel, Waverly ; the lease and furniture of the Taueru Hotel, to Mr Arthur Naylor, late of Pahiatua ; the lease of Madame de Costa’s Turanganui Hotel, Gisborne, to Mr Robert Campbell, late hotelkeeper of New Plymouth ; Mrs A Goldfinch’s interest in the Rainbow Hotel, Kaiwarra, to Mr Robert Hunt, late of Marton ; Mr John Innes’s interest in the leas® and furniture of the Kilbirnie Hotel, to Mr Henry W. Estall, late of Wellington ; the lease and furniture of the Manutahi Hotel, Hawera, to Mr James Woods, late of the White Horse Hotel, Ngahauranga; Mr F. Scott’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Commercial Hotel, Havelock, to Mr D, Duggan, late of Tua Marina ; Mr James Prosser’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Colyton Hotel. Feilding, to Mr James McErlean, late of the Manawatu Railway, .Shannon ; the lease and furniture of Middleton’s Hotel, Opunake, to a Wellingtonian ; also Mr J. H. Mill’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Empire Hotel, Blenheim, to Mr George Macdonald.

Recent efforts made by the Irish distillers to secure an all-round rise in the price of whisky, have not been supported by their Scotch confreres. The heavy stocks which have accumulated in Scotland naturally preclude any such step. Mr Edwin Bastings of the Criterion Hotel, Paeroa, passed through town last week. He visits his father in the South, who is the hardworking president of the New Zealand Licensed Victuallers Association.

From Arthur Guinnes, Son and Co, Ltd, between 30 and 40 men are serving in South ; Africa. When these men return they Will bo re instated, their places being kept open for them. In the cases of labouring men who were married half wages were allowed to their families.

The Licensed Victuallers* Association of Victoria is booming. The membership has increased considerably, and the Block Arcade is now a convenient and comfortable resting place for the bonifaces The good times and the active, secretary, Mr R Lemon, who is an expert canvasser, are responsible for the flourishing condition. There are some 4000 hotelkeepers inthe colony, and with organization they should be able to maintain their rights. The popular delusion that hotelkeepers are different from other citizens is dying out, and by skilful organization they will no doubt impress upon the Legislature tbe desirability of according them fair and equitable treatment. — Australian Brewing World. The County brewers' Gazette says: — “ We do not complain of the increased imposts on spirits and beer; but it is surely time that the so-called temperance drinks should contribut their share to wards the national revenue. It has been proved by analysis that many of them contain more alcohol than the poor man’s glass of ale; and it has been asserted that when the teetotallers have a day to themselves at the Crystal Palace, there are certain signs of hilarity visible amongst them towards evening I On this point we cannot speak from personal observation, but we do know that a small tax upon nonalcoholic beverages would bring an appreciable increase to the funds at the disposal of our Government.

An apparently flourishing business is being done in one of the busiest streets in Barlin by an automatic catering establishment, where solid and liquid refreshments can be obtained by the simple method of dropping a coin in the slot. One side of the shop is occupied by machines vending the German equivalent ©f a sandwich.— namely, a half roll, with slices of sausages, etc., laid on tbe top—in great variety at prices ranging from 10 pfennigs (l|d) to 50 (6) quite a small banquet being procured for the latter sum. The viands have an appetising being nicely set out on white plates, and, judging by the number of customers, seems to be greatly appreciated. On the opposite side there is a plentiful choice of beers and liqueurs. The glasses a’e hung on sloping pegs on the wall, and when the customer has finished his drink he turns the glass upside down over a vertical jet, which, on the application of pressure, rinses the glass out clean and ready to be restored to its peg-