Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 678, 5 March 1903, Page 20

Trade Topics

lii the opinion of the Wanganui “ Herald,” clubs should be restricted to the same hours as hotels. The two classes of licensed houses must be placed on the same footing as regards the sale of liquor; otherwise, remarks our contemporary. the time is not far distant when public opinion will assert itself and compel the Government to refuse to countenance an unfair competition in the liquor trade.

The total consumption of spirit in Russia for 1900, to which the latest figures refer, was about 26,000,01’0 vedros (70,000.000 gallons) proof spirit. 1 his yielded the Government just under £4 6 000 000 The sale of the national drink is now a Government monoply in Russia, but the new system has, it is stated, not resulted in any decrease of consumption.

The Dunedin District Lodge, 1.0 G.T., intend supporting a ticket f*<r the Licensing Committee for the City and Caverbham pledged to secure a maximum reduction of licenses and ten o’clock closing. Resolutions were also carried expressing delight at the dismissal of the publicans* petitions against the local option polls at Ashburton, Mataura, Dunedin, Caversham and Waikouaiti and urging Parliament to make bottle licenses subject to the reduction vote.

Provisional returns have been issued of the French vintage in 1902. The total yield is given at 39,943,191 hectolitres of 22 English gallons, a decrease of 18,020,323 hectolitres on 1901, and of 2,797,347 hectolitres on the average o the last ten years. The decrease is at tribute! te the cold spring, which checked the natural development of the vines, maladies to which the plant is subject, drought m July a r d August, and hailstorms and a low temperature in September, during the period of the ripening of the fruit. The low prices to which wine had fallen, from the abundant vintage in 1901, is also stated to have caused growers to economise in the cost of labor in the culture and in the outlay for remedies against disease. The value oi the vintage is estimated at 848,461,176 f. (£33,935,447). In addition to the French vintage, 3,666,111 hectolitres were pro duced in Algeria. The leading British wine trade journal, commenting on the trend of business, says :—“ The trade in French red wines is appreciably suffering from the competition of Australian wines, which are credited with having diverted about 20 per cent of 41*e British trade in French still wines/’ . .- - : '

The election this month of the Hawke’s l ey Licensing Committee is of gr*-at local i, terest (says the “ Telegi aph). Bff >rts aie being made to prevent a contested ekction by all parties cmsen ing to the pw sent committee being returned unopposed The present c .im nittee consists of the following:—Messrs ' Turnbull, S M.. (ex-officio and chairman), C. A. Fitzßoy, A L. D. Fraser, W. Y. Dennett, D. McLeod, and Captain Howard These'gentl-iuien have been noted during their term of office for their attention to business, ami for their impartiality. It is rumored, h >wover. that a Hastings clergyman is a probable candidate in opposition to the present c<»mmi* -t ee. K ♦ * • The question ,<d c- to owners of hotel property affected by the prohibit! >n vote has formed the subject of a protracted correspondence in the columns of the Dunedin “ Star.” The teetotal argument is the stale one that there is no property in a license which is simply granted from year to year To this one correspondent replies :—“ Every ordinary person knows perfectly well the licenses have always been granted an nually, and quite right too,, because it gives the Licensing Bench an opportunity to lecture applicants, if necessary, and perhaps in many cases they have been let down too easy. Surely your correspondent does not imagine investors who have built handsome buildings for the hotel business in this and other large cities in the colony—buildings costing from £lO,OOO to £40,000 —on the offchance of their license being taken from them in twelve months. We haven’t to look altogether on local requirements, but to the travelling public—tourists and commercial travellers ; that is, those who have plenty of “ foreign ” capital to distribute. Evidently your correspondent hasn’t his money invested in hotel property ; neither has he prospects of being “ left,” wnich makes a wonderful difference to those who write —socialistically and otherwise —on the law of confiscation. By the time hotelkeepers who are carrying on a first class business pay their laundry, liquor, the high prices for butchers’ meat, poultry, bakers, and other innumerable accounts, there is, in many instances, very little left for them by way of assisting the Income Tax Department.”

William Runciman, who was sentenced to twelve months’ hard labour at the last sessions of the Supreme Court at Wellington, on several charges of issuing valueless cheques, was brought up at the Wanganui Police Couirt last week on two similar charges. He was sentenced to three months on each. The accused, who is an educated man, arrived in the colony six months ago, when he deposited £6O in the Auckland Savings Bank. This was all spent in a month. Then the accused travelled about and issued valueless cheques. He stated that he was “ sodden with drink ” at the time. Every rascal blames the drink. How George Washington managed to keep honest while indulging in his modicum of liquor must ever remain one of the world’s mysteries I

Th® irrepressible John Bourke O’Brien, in an eloquent peroration, appealed to Mr C. C. Kettle,, S.M., at the Wanganui Police Court for protection against what he termed police persecution. He said that he had been the victim of persecution for very many years, and had lost his pension : indeed everything he possessed, except his good character. The police, however, had endeavoured to brand him with disgrace and dishonour, and were filling up the gaols by manufacturing crime. The Magistrate interrupted O’Brien in the middle of his oration, and reminded him that if he had any complaints to make there was a proper way to do so. O’Brien added that he had now joined the temperance cause, and he trusted that the prohibition order which had been issued against him would not deprive him of lecturing on the great temperance cause under the patronage of some of the great temperance societies. —(Wanganui “ Herald.”)

“ There is no body of men who are more interested in putting down and destroying the calamitous existence of drunkenness in the country than those who represent the Trade.” This is an excerpt from the speech of Mr Lucas, M.P., in responding to the toast of the Houses of Parliament at the annual dinner of the Portsmouth and Gosport Licensed Victuallers’ Association, and he is right. The curse of drunkenness in the public mind is associated with the Trade in general, but it has been repeatedly stated, and with truth, that there is no greater enemy to the licensed victualler than the drunkard, and the Trade will’ fie amongst the first to support any proposals that are calculated. to solve “ this everlasting problem.”

Mr Edward Halliwell, a Bolton brewer, has sent a; cheque for £3OOO to Mr Aiderman Nicholson, the Deputy Mayor, to be distributed as follows :—Bolton Infirmary, £.1000; Bolton Workshops for the Blind, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Adult Deaf and Dumb Society, and Queen-street Mission Ragged School, £5OO each. ’

At the Te Awamutu Police Court, on ’Thursday, before Mr Northcroft, S.M., James Jacob was charged with selling, on November 27 last, to Stanley Mack certain liquor, viz., whisky, and also with selling on the same date whisky to Thurston Walters at Otorohanga, the defendant being an unlicennted person. Mrs Isaacs was also charged with selfing whisky. to Stanley Mack, at Otorohanga, on November 27 last, without being licensed to sell the same. The evidence in these cases was taken last Court day, when Mr Reed submitted that the evidence of informers required corroboration, and the Court reserved its decision. The Magistrate now gave judgment, and reviewed the law on the question, raised by Mr Reed, which went to show that the evidence might be received and acted upon by the Court, although it was not corroborated ; the defendants were, therefore, both convicted. Jacob was fined £lO and costs £5 5s 7d on the first charge, and £l5 and costs £5 5s 7d on the second. Mrs Isaacs was fined £5 and costs £1 Is.

The Home Secretary has caused to be published official forms for the advising of the police (and, we suppose, the Trade also) of convictions of habitual drunkards. It contains nine parallel columns with the following headings : —Date of conviction ; date of order directing notice to police authority ; name of person convicted ; age ; address of person convicted ; place Of business or where employed'; offence of which convicted ; sentence ; licensed premises or clubs usually frequented (if known). The notice is to be signed by the clerk to the justices of the Petty Sessional Division. It will be seen that for all practical purposes the notice will be singularly deficient. It will be very easy for the habitual to move into another locality where he is not known, and in his own neighbourhood he can, where not personally known, give another name. To make the notice operative in th& slightest degree a. personal description is necessary. —(“ L.V. Gazette.”)

“ The Lancet ” has been sending a Commissioner to the cnarente, who reports : “ The replantation of the vineyards met with conspicuous success, after a most laborious series of experiments lasting nearly twenty years, and now there is abundance on all sides and in all districts. The present prospects of the inreadv being confronted with the prospects skill, and perseverance of men of sense; of commerce, and of the toilers in vineyards, are of the most favourable kind. The production of wine, in fact, in the Charente is> now so abundant, as to exceed the fullest requirements of the distiller, and the, farmer, having successfully passed through a period of partial famine, is already being confronted with the prospects of over-production. The chances are, in view of this extraordinary reversal of things within a few years, that genuine Cognac brandy will be cheaper in the near future, and will thus be able to compete with other spirits, and to take the position which it formerly held. The vintages since the replantation was completed are proving to yield brandies of the excellence of that produced in the pre-phylloxera period, possessing that softness and ‘ finesse ’ which characterised the well-known produce of the years 1(865 to 1875 inclusive.”

At the Wellington Police Court, on Wednesday of last week, two young men named Johnson and Cooper pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery at the Western Hotel. The hotel was broken into, on Monday and £2 stolen, the thieves failing in their intention of robbing the safe. One of the prisoners, Cooper, has made a statement with which the other agrees. This is to the effect that the, two prisoners had been acquainted for three weeks. Johnson told Cooper that Pagni, the landlord of the hotel, kept his money in his safe in his bedroom, that it was easy to get at, and there was a good “get away.” Johnson induced Cooper to help him, and they left their lodgings at three a.m., entering the backyard of the hotel by way of Boulcottstreet and the school grounds. They entered the hotel by the back door, which was latched, but not locked, and went upstairs, Cooper remaining at the door of Pagni's room while Johnson went in,; picked up the £2, took the key from Pagni's trousers pocket and tried to open the safe. The click awoke 1 Mrs Pagni, and they had no time to get their boots, which they had left outside. By way of Boul-cott-street,- the Terrace and the tramway line they reached Kelburne reserve. Seeing a constable they lay for ten minutes io gully, but Were able- to -return to th'c.ii--lodgings and get in unobserved by six aim.. Both prisoners were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.

Mr Hutchison, S.M., at Dargaville, last week, dealt with three cas?s of sly-grog sailing. Arthur Hull, of Kaihu, was fined £l5 and £5 costs. William Adams was fined £25 and costs £5. Peter Powich, an Austrian, living at Aratapu, was convictand fined £lO and costs. Mr McLeod appeared for defendants, who in each case , pleaded guilty. In Hull’s case fifty-one hotties of liquor were confiscated, and in Adams’ case 234 bottles. * * * * ' The accumulation of builders’' material outside the Royal Hotel, which is in course of extensive alteration, was the cause of a couple of cases at the Auckland Police Court last week. .Mr Tanner, the well-known livery-stable keeper, in passing down Elliott-street in the dark one evening, came in contact with a wheelbarrow ®a the footpath, and roughly pushed it away, whereupon an over-zealous young policeman, named Wade, accused him of having put the vehicle on the footway. Warm words followed, and the policeman laid an information, which was dismissed by the Magistrate, who evidently declined to believe the policeman, or treat the matter seriously. In the other case, the contractor was fined a nominal sum for not keeping a sufficiently good light on the obstruction. * * ♦ What the landlords of respectable hotels have to put up with was evidenced by a case that came before the local court last week. A dispute of old standing, relative to a pawn ticket, created bad blood between two gentlemen of humble station, one of whom is a bottle gatherer, and the other aoparenrly of no particular occupation. They carried on the feud in a series of episodes whenever they met, and the quarrel came to a pretty head when the pair foregatheted in the bar of the Grosvenor. Words were followed by blows, and the bottle gatherer, whose name is Ward, received some severe knocks on the head from a bottle and a pewter pot, while the other, Brockbank, alleges that he got a black eye. The latter now stands committed for trial. The landlord was in his ■ 1 i Office at the time, or the assault would assuredly not have been committed. '• * ' '• '' • ■ * The new English Licensing Act now in force adds greatly to the burdens and responsibilities of the Trade. It will no longer be permissible, under any circumstances, even of the greatest charity, to Allow anybody with the least symptoms of drunkenness to be on the premises, no matter where he obtained the liquor. To do so will lay the license-holder open to the charge of “ permitting drunkenness,” and he now has to prove that he “ took all reasonable steps for preventing drunkenness on the premises.” The law now assumes the license-holder to be guilty until he proves himself innocent, taking a leaf out of the French book, and a very un-British leaf at the best. There is another curious effect of one part of the Bill, which, though not affecting the licenseholder, affects his customers. Under one clause, a loan to enable a man to get a drink who was not quite so sober as he might be, though the lender was never on the licensed premises when his loan was subsequently spent, might be said to be aiding and abetting a drunken man to obtain drink on licensed premises. We have often wondered how the licensed victualler is to know the habitual drunkards, even when furnished with a printed list of them, for anyone can give a false name and address when suspected and questioned. But the Chief Constable of Plymouth has rushed in “ where angels > fear to tread,” and devised a method of his own. He proposes to personally photograph habituals coming within his ken, and to distribute copies, with descriptions, amongst all licensed victuallers in his borough, for their confidential inspection. Only one habitual will give him “ a tall order ’ ’ in the photographic line if each victualler is to have a copy. And fancy the landlord, the barman, and the barnrnids all consulting the album, and going through it before serving, a customer 1 bio', no, Mr Constable—-the idea won’t work I '