TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XI, Issue 529, 7 February 1901, Page 18

TRADE TOPICS.

We note by London trade papers that Messrs W. D. and H. O. Wills, Ltd,, of Bristol, have, through their South African agents, sent one million of their famous cigarettes as a Christmas gift to the troops at the front. They received the following telegram of thanks from Lord Roberts, Johannesburg“ Please accept hearty thanks of self and army for handsome present of cigarettes. They will be greatly appreciated.— Lord Roberts.”

The Campbell Ehrenfried Company made a shipment of 150 cases of quarts ale by the “Cornwall” troopship, which recently left here. The notice given for shipping was very short, but the company had the shipment packed and on the the wharf in good time. Sending the lot.down at one time in seven carts the shipment made an imposing array, and the troopers on the ship lined up and gave the carts three cheers when the beer was alongside the vessel. In connection with the taking over of that well-known hostelry, Warner’s Hotel, Christchurch, by Mr Percy Herman, arrangements have been made for the immediate demolition of the old portion of the hotel, which will be replacd by a brick building up-to-date in every particular, and replete with all modern conveniences. The electric light will be installed throughout the premises, and the building when completed will have all the necessary conveniences of a first- class hotel.

Recently at Greenwich Mr Paul Taylor made some sensible remarks on “ permitting drunkenness.” “He should decline to hold that the fact of a man being found drunk on licensed premises was a prima facie evidence against a publican of permitting drunkenness The liquor might have been served to him while he was sober, and have made him drunk. He should want stronger evidence than that before convicting a publican of permitting drunkenness, and he thought magistrates should be very careful to see that publicans should get fair play in cases of this kind If a man went in sober, and was served with drink which made him drunk, the publican could not be held responsible if he took prompt measures to prevent the man from having more, and to remove him from the premises.”

When the Hon J. McGowan, Minster for Mines, visited Paeroa recently, a deputation from the Ohinemuri County Council, waited on him, Mr Poland, as chairman of finance, drew attention to the excessive cost of the late licensing election, namely, £356. This, he thought, was exorbitant, the unfortunate part being that though the Council had to bear the heavy expense, they had no say whatever in the election. The method of conducting licensing elections was not as it should be, and he asked that the legislation be so amended as to bring the election under the control of the local governing body. The Minister said the cost as far as Ohinemuri was concerned did seem excessive. He then recommended that the grievance be placed in writing, and. he said he would bring the matter before the Colonial Secretary. His own opinion was that the local bodies should have control over the elections..

Some time ago orders were given to search the waiters after a Mansion House banquet. All proved to be carpet-baggers. Number one had secured six legs of fowls, evidently for devilling; number two, a Bank of England messenger of over thirty years’ standing, had two bottles of port; while number three went in for napkins, which helped to explain how it was, as mentioned by the magistrate before whom they appeared, that thirty-six dozen napkins had in the course of not a very long period been missed from the mansion houses, as well as forty pieces of plate within a twelve month. One can well realise from such facts as these how necessary must be Her Majesty’s household police. Hotels, clubs, and private establishments doubtless suffer, each after its kind.

A couple of would-be dictators and evident opponents of the Trade, fell in rather badly over the the closing of the hotels on the sad occasion of the day of the funeral of Our late Gracious Majesty the Queen. Both of these whole-souled patriots wrote to the dailies, drawing attention to the fact that the hotels had not signified their intention of closing on that memorable day. Alas! for their ignorant interference with other people’s business, the hotelkeepers had already agreed upon a course of action which covered the ground that the eager letter writers attempted to open up. Even in the suburbs the hotels closed up strictly according to agreement, showing that it is not necessary to introduce letters in papers and espoinage to make the Trade rise to any occasion.

Mr A. M. Myers, managing director of the Campbell Ehrenfried Company, arrives from London via Suez and Australia early in May.

In a communication recently made to the Agricultural Society of France, M Vassiliere gave an account of a new process of preserving wine from the action of microbes which attack it when in the cask When the wine is placed in a cask which has been left empty for some time, it is subject to deterioration owing to the action of the different microbes, these being propagated when the wine is in contact with. the. air. The expedient generally in use consists in burning sulphur in the empty cask to purify. The experimenter proposes to remedy the difficulty by covering the wine with a layer of carbonic acid gas, which, being more dense, drives out the air and takes its place. The carbonic acid is liquified in tubes of chrome steel provided with a resevoir in which it takes the gaseous form before passing into the cask; the resevoir is provided with a rubber tube which descends into the cask, and also with a pressure guage by whose indications the supply of gas is regulated. By this method very good results have been attained at a small cost.—“ W. and S. Gazette.”

It is fairly certain that artificially derived suga r is employed in the production of spirits, and the question remains to be answered whether if there were arsenic in the sugar it would pass into the spirit in distillation. AH spirits, of course, are distilled. We have this week conducted a simple experiment which shows that arsenious acid does not pass over with spirit in the still. Indeed, if a spirit contained arsenic, in the form of araenious acid, the latter could be easily separated in this way We placed a few ounces of whisky in a small still with about 20 grains of white arsenic, or arsenious acid, and then proceeded to distil the mixture. In spite of the very large poisonous quantity of arsenic in the still, not a trace of arsenic passed over could be detected in the rectified spirit. The whole of the arsenic was left behind. According to this experiment, therefore, no fear need be entertained of arsenic occuring in whisky, thought the poison may be present in the sugar substitute employed. This experiment was undertaken because it had been reported that some of the cases at Manchester and Shoreditch occurred in regard to patients who had not been beer-drinkers but whiskydrinkers.—“Lancet.”

The following story is told of prohibition in Clutha.—A professor from the Otago University had rather an unpleasant experience at Owaka a few days ago He was sojourning at a boardinghouse, and was aroused in the early morning by the entry of a burly policeman into his sleeping chamber. The minion of the law paid no attention to the professor’s protests, but commenced to turn things upside down in a search for liquor, which he evidently suspected. had been secreted within the room by the proprietor of the establishment. Now, it so happened that the professor referred to is not averse to a glass of “ Scotch,” but he likes to be sure of the brand, and had therefore taken a supply with him into the wilds of Prohibition Clutha. This the searcher presently lighted upon in the shape of a cas-e of Thom and Cameron’s best, and with an exulting laugh proceeded to annex as part of the spoil of the raid, paying no attention to the professor’s vigorous remarks. But the latter was not to be deprived of his whisky in this summary fashion, and with the opening of the telegraph office was made an “ appeal to Ceesar ” in the person of Inspector Pardy. That gentleman evidently took in the situation at a glance, and communicated with his too-zealous subordinates, with the result that restitution was made, and there was one man in Owaka able to rise superior to the drought that had set in.

The Public House Trust Company recently formed in London is another proof that the coming reform in the liquor trade is the climinatk n of private profit. The objection generally urged to the municipal ownership of public houses is that drinking is encouraged to reduce the rates. The new company will not do away with all private profit, because the shareholders will receive a fixed rate of interest on their investments ; but all profit left over will be devoted to charitable works. The idea is not new, and indeed the company has been formed mainly on account of the success of the “model public house ” wherever it has been established. It will acquire houses throughout England, beginning with London, and in addition to the regular bar trade the sale of food and non-intoxicating drinks will be strongly pushed. Cardinal Vaughan, the Duke of Bedford, the Bishops of Winchester, Chester, Rochester, and Lichfield, Lord Grey and Sir Frederick Pollock are among those directly interested. The truth is that Lord Salisbury’s refusal to attack the liquor problem in Great Britain has driven the moderates and many temperance workers to undertake practical reforms on their own account, and if the movement continues to spread at its present rate half the houses in England will’soon be run on philanthropic lines. That some reform of the licensing system is urgently needed in the Old Country is beyond doubt, and every land is being searched for a model system - A correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle” asserts that he found the best-conducted houses in the world in Bangor, in the State of Maine. The sale of intoxicants was illegal, but the official directory showed 200 establishments at which drink was sold openly. Once a year the police prosecuted each drinkseller, and the fines went to the city exchequer The proprietors of well-conducted houses were then left unmolested for another year, but houses that were not thoroughly respectable and wellmanaged were speedily suppressed.

A pleasing little ceremony recently took place at Ward’s Brewery, when Mr T. Barnett, on behalf of the proprietors, presented to Mr O. G. Craddock, who has severed his connection with the firm, and become the landlord of the Eastern Hotel, a substantial gold Albert and pendant. The pendant is inscribed: “In recognition of twenty years’ faithful service. From Ward and Co., Limited.”