Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 677, 26 February 1903, Page 20

Trade Topics

The Criterion Hotel, Paeroa, is changing hands, Mr F. Gimblet having disposed of his interest to Mr Edwards.

We understand that there is likely to be a distinct movement in the hotel business after the Licensing Committee elections. Messrs Whitehead and Son inform us that they have a number of Southern clients, who are inquiring after investments in this part of the colony.

Licensed victuallers under the new English Act will have a most anxious, npt to say harassing, time. Already it is said some license holders, determined to take no risks where a property worth many thousands of pounds is concerned, have decided that certain customers of pronounced convival tendencies are no longer to be served in their establishments. It is, of course, in the power of the holder of a public-house license to refuse to serve anybody, but such a highhanded proceeding as this will not be calculated to advance his business. Still, every reasonable precaution will have to be taken to prevent charges of “ permitting drunkenness ” being brought against license holders. The police have now an opportunity of helping the publican, and it is hoped that the circular recently sent out from the Home Office on this subject will not be allowed to remain a dead letter so far as the police are concerned.

Why should the fishing town of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, rank amongst th© most drunken places in all England ? Aiderman Doughty, who represents the constituency, has his own views on the subject, and if, as he seems to think, th® system of police promotion on the number of arrests mado is responsible for many of the charges of drunkenness heard at the police courts, the whole population of Grimsby ought to back up his request for a full and searching inquiry.

At Liverpool, John Clark, a member of the City Police Force, was charged with wilful and corrupt perjury alleged to have been committed at the hearing of a summons against a licensee named James '’Coulthard, on October 29. The. officer swore that he saw a drunken woman on the premises served with a jug of beer. The Stipendiary dismissed the case against Coulthard, and the prosecution now contended that the ’constable swore falsely, and that the woman was given the beer outside the. public-house by a man named O’Neill. Clark was committed for trial at the assizes, and a’’ similar charge against another constable named Fraser was adjourned.

Guinness’s Brewery, in Dublin, which ie already the largest stout brewery in th© world, and which probably gives mor® employment than any single industry. in Dublin, is to be enlarged. Sir William Arrol and Co., engineers, Glasgow, have contracted to make a large extension of the brewery, which will be 150 feet in height, will cover an immense area, and many thousands of tons of steel will be used in its construction.

At Wrexham County Police Court, James Dodd Phoenix was fined £2O and costs for keeping a bogus drinking club at Bradley, three miles from Wrexham. Mr Churton, of Chester, who defended, submitted that working men had as much right to combine and form a club as the rich members of the Carlton Club in London. • The club, of which defendant was manager, was started in 1883, and had been carried on ever since in a perfectly, legitimate manner, and enabled the members to enjoy those privileges bn Sunday which Englishmen possessed without clubs.

The Coventry licensing justices have passed unanimously the following resolution : —" That, having regard to the Licensing Act of 1902, and to the increased local power now vested in justices, together with the fact that there are 324 licensed houses or places in Coventry, or an average of one to every 215 inhabitants —men, women, and children —it is desirable that no future application for a new license should be granted without a full and adequate surrender of one or more existing licenses within the munici-: pal area, and that the owners and occupiers of licensed premises should be invited to suggest some plan whereby the pre-, sent number of licensed houses in Coventry should be reduced.” It will be observed that this is an entirely different thing to the confiscation of existing licenses.

The Marlborough “ Times ” is' credibly informed that the Temperance Party and Licensed Victuallers, with a view of saving the cost and heated feeling of a contested election, have agreed amongst themselves to nominate the following five candidates, viz. : —Messrs W. Ching (Blenheim), J. T. Griffin (Blenheim), H. C. Seymour (Picton), P. "Simmonds (Havelock), and H, D. Vavasour (Awatere). Should other candidates be nominated and thus make an election inevitable, the block vote of each side, as above-named, is pledged to be polled for the candidates named, irrespective of party. /

The publican in the little village of Tadburn, St. Mary’s, has been strenuously endeavouring to impress, his better half with the knowledge that she was too fond of intoxicating beverages. His efforts were fruitless. Returning one day after a Visit to a neighbouring town he found her absolutely and hopelessly drunk. Here was his opportunity. He fetched the village constable as an impartial witness. The husband, no doubt much to his surprise, was charged with permitting drunkenness on licensed premises, and he was lined £2. * • ♦ * The Recorder of Carlisle, in charging the grand jury at the City Quarter Sessions lately, said there had just been passed an Act to make people temperate. If an Act of Parliament Could make people temperate in their thoughts and actions he would indeed welcome it. He differed from judges who regarded drunkenness as the cause of crime. The habitual criminal was the cause of crime. A , mere drunken man was a perfectly harmless creature. who might commit an assault or play the fool, but he never committed serious crimes. A drunken man was a great nuisance, but after all he did ' • not do any great harm, and the evil he did was moderate. ® ® • 4» The “St. James’ Gazette” is responsible for the following :—“ The Church has its public-houses, and the brewers have their churches. The Ship Inn at Windsor belongs to the Parish Church ; so, too, does the Three Tuns, close by. Dean Hole of Rochester is ‘ landlord ’ of an inn belonging to the Chapter, and has persistently refused to close it. The number of clergymen holding shares in brewery companies is startling, and the progress Of the reformed public-house movement has probably doubled the figures. Lord Burton has built half a dozen churches in various parts of the kingdom ; and Dean Swift’s cathedral in Dublin was restored by the late Sir Benjamin Guinness. So with Christ Church, Dublin, which was restored by a wealthy distiller.” The “Gazette ” evidently forgets the number of licensed houses in the country which are under the control of the clergy or of his workers. Somehow, however, these houses rarely pay their expenses. ' # ♦ * ♦ There is likely to be p, slump in the slygrog informing business in Auckland, which Was beginning to look up a week or 00 ago. Mr W. R. Haselden, S.M., in giving his decision in respect to the charges of sly-grog selling heard last week against Ina Dooley and Mary Palmer, •aid :—“ These cases have caused me a good deal of consideration. The evidence for the prosecution consists of that of two young men whose testimony I conaider is utterly unreliable. It may be that by disregarding this evidence two offenders against the law may on this occasion escape punishment, but even that is a less evil than to set a hallmark of credibility on the witnesses referred to i and enable them to continue the vocation they have just entered upon. It is said by the prosecution that there is no other method of detecting and bringing offenders in these cases to justice, but that is not a sufficient reason for accepting unreliable testimony. All informations are , dismissed.” We . wonder what course Mr Haselden would have pursued in the King | Country cases.

The Guardians of the Leighton Busssard Union not only refused to allow the Inmate®/ of the workhouse the customary supply of one pint of beer per adult at their Christmas dinner, which has been granted in many previous years, but, by nine votes to four, they also refused to allow beer to be eent into the workhouse by private persons, who have, with brewers in the neighbourhood, been in the habit of freely supplying three 'or four barrels, as Christmas cheer for officials and inmates- ■ 1 •’

Some fears have been expressed that a licensed victualler calling in the police to eject a drunken man may lay himself open to the charge of “permitting drunkennere.” This, we think, 'is far-fetched, for what reasonable magistrate could construe, the ejecting of a “drunken,” or the seeking of assistance whereby to eject him, as permitting ? It would rather be very much the reverse. Similarly, we look upon the case of a drunken man being followed into a house by the police The landlord, not having time to see the man, let alone having time to serve him, could not be construed as “permitting.” To carry the supposition still further, supposing such contentions to “ hold water,” each licensed victualler would require one Or more unlicensed policemen stationed outside the premises to prevent “doubtful” customers from entering. And "4 he judgment as to whether a customer has had enough, or not, would be shifted from the police, and the licensed victualler,, on to the unlicensed watchman.

The workmen of the famous Chartreuse distillery have addressed a touching appeal to the French Premier. Fearing ; that, with the disappearance of the Chartreux. fathers, their occupation will .be gone, and that the liqueur will be made' elsewhere, the workmen point out several things which M. Combes will have to take into account. The expulsion of the monks will mean that the workmen will be deprived of their means of living, since they will not be able to find any other occupation. Further, it was the custom of the monks, after their workmen had given twenty-five or thirty years’ Service, to grant them a yearly pension of from £l2 to £4O. A great number already enjoy this pension, which is all they have to live upon, and the question arises- i -What is to become of them if the means by which these pensions are paid are taken from the Chartreux fathers ? The workmen conclude by paying a warm tribute to the monks as employers.

“ Scotland for ever !” The Trade in the land o’ cakes are rubbing their hands with glee. The teetotal party has been routed at the November elections, and those engaged in the licensing business are looking forward • to quieter times. There is a new Lord Provost of Glasgow; and Bailie King, the bete noir of the licensed victuallers, has been sent into obscurity, In Aberdeen, it is said, there, is not a single teetotaler on the licensing bench, and Greenock is in much the same favoured position. The barmaid in Glasgow, we are told, has been restored with, out a word oi protest, and at the April Sessions the early closing restricted area question will be fought, out with, it is hoped a a beneficial result to those who have been deprived of a pdrt of their living under the old order of things. At any rate the Scottish. Licensed Trade Protection Association think that they have a good chance of success. The capitulation of the Aberdeen licensed holders in regard to this matter is still a sore point in the Trade throughout Scotland. There was no need for i/iem to fa’! in with the recommendations of the I« nch, and it will be interesting to know what action they propose to take io put a stop to the inconvenience at present felt by the residents of, and visitors to, the granite city.

A man-who had the misfortune to lose a leg many years ago, which was' replaced by a timber' substitute, and who also had a weakness for “ bending his elbow ” rather too frequently, met a few friends recently at a pub., and spent a jolly night in lowering the contents of numerous' long-sleeyers. As the purchasing power appeared to be exhausted, and no tick was given, he decided to make for home fa place he never thought of going to unless there was no other place). He managed to make the street in which he Jived about two a.m.. and also succeeded in locating his domicile at the other end of the street, marked by a lamp near his front door. After taking observations, he proceeded to tack for the beacon, being handicapped by the heavy cargo aboard and, the peg-leg. He appeared to make little headway, but kept on plugging away for what, to him, appeared hours. On the approach of daylight he commenced to sober up, and on looking down discovered that a member of the Water Board had left a hydrant open, into which his wooden leg had slipped, and every step taken caused him to swing round, the leg acting as a pivot. This performance had been going on for several

hours 7

Polios Sub-inspector Black met with a very painful accident through falling from a moving tramcar at Newton on Thursday. He sustained severe injuries to his head, and suffered a general shock to the system. He was removed to the Hospital. We are glad to hear that he will be able to be about again in the course of a few days.