Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 679, 12 March 1903, Page 20

Trade Topics

A lire in Chapel-street, on Thursday afternoon last destroyed a building adjoining the Alexandra Hotel, used as a saddle? and harness room. The proprietor’s loss amounts to about £4O. It is not known how the affair originated, as there was no lire used in the building.

A cable message states that a Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Mr Sloan, member for Belfast South, for closing public houses in Ireland at nine o’clock on Saturday nights, has been read a second time by 101 to 78.

Mr John Patterson announces his intention of standing for the City Licensing Committee, on the moderate ticket. Mr Patterson has served the citizens on the City Council and in other capacities well, and his actions have been invariably characterised by impartiality and common sense. In the hands of such men the Licensing Act would be administered in a broad and enlightened spirit, and in the interests of the whole people.

When prohibition was carried m several electorates of the colony ia-.t November articles were printed in the i-ress explaining the measure of actual prohibition—there is no total prohibit ion—of liquor sales specified by the Act. Reference was made to the fact that the legislation regarding chartered clubs was at least ambiguous, and that there would be a probability of misunderstandings and possible heartburning between two sections of the community when the issue came definitely into question.' Point is now given to this forecast by a paragraph in the Christchurch “ Press,” ta the effect that '/ in view- of complications likely to arise from the enforcement of prohibition in Ashburton, the Working Men’s Club there has decided to take no more members until some important points' affecting clubs shall have been settled.”

A “ Pall Mall Gazette ” correspondent, writing on “ the abolition of the barmaid as a Transvaal institution,” remarks' :— ‘‘ I had the honour of meeting Schutte, the Chief of Police, not long before the war broke out, and that functionary boasted to me that the barmaids were the eyes and ears of bis department. He pretended that, owing to tne information he gained, he had nipped in the bud half a score of upsets in the Republic, and added that but for the barmaids he could never have held up his end of the log.”

'The license of the Shamrock Hotel, Dunedin, is now transferred to the premises heretofore known as the Australasian Hotel. V’he Australasian’s license was on Friday week declared forfeited owing to the proprietor being absent without leave of the Licensing Committee for a period exceeding fourteen days. Mr W. J, Goughian’s application to have the transfer made was the only business before the City Licensing Committee at their quarterly meeting. Mr Sim and Mr O’Shea, appearing in support of the application, tendered evidence as to the tw houses being in the same ward and as to their being not more than a quarter of a mile apart, but the committee said that they knew the positions, and would not trouble counsel to ■ prove these matters. Mr Sim said that the owners of the old Shamrock freehold, the Church Board of Property, did not consent to the transfer, but.'they did not formally object and did not oppose the application. As a matter of fact they were desirous of terminating the tenancy as soon as possible, and learned counsel read the correspondence between the licensee and the Board, showing that the Board had somewhat reluctantly agreed to an extension of the license to the present month, and that they would be only too glad to get the premises: dosed as a licensed house. The consent of J. Speight and Co., owners of the Shamrock lease, was also put in, and it was shown that all the necessary formalities had been complied with. MrGraham, S.M., chairman of the committee, said that there were no objections to the application, and the police reported favourably on the Australasian building and its appointments. The transfer would be sanctioned. It was further decided that the transfer take effect at once. 'The old house at the corner of Rat'tray-street is therefore no longer an hotel.

During the hearing of applications for prohibition at the Police Court in Christchurch, the remark 1 was made from the Bench that it would be well if applicants would point out to the police the houses at which their friends or relatives'were supplied with too much drink. If they did this they would have the power of /the public, the police, and the Bench behind them. It was the only certain way of grannling with the existing evils.

The attempts that have been made, in some instances, by Palmerston North hotelkeepers (says Mr Pirani’s paper) to comply with or evade—either term means pretty well the same in this particular matter—the fire escape conditions imposed by the Licensing Committee would be diverting and amjusing in the extreme if it wei j e . n°t for the seriousness of the possibilities and the principle involved. It is true that balconies have been erected, but they are embryonic, and if left to the hotelkeepers it will be a long time before they emerge from their incipient state, remindful of an extended plate rack and offering a wide scope for conjecture as to whether it would be best, in case of necessity, to face the fiery element or destruction by getting one’s neck broken by trusting to the “ escapes.” Their present state certainly justifies Sergeant Stagpoole’s expression of opinion that the Committee was being treated with contempt.

Prior to severing .their connection with the Coronation Hotel, Gisborne, Mr and Mrs G. Oman were the recipients of a presentation from their employees. It took the form of a set of gold sleevelinks, suitably inscribed, for Mr Oman, and a handsome dressing-case for Mrs Oman.

It is stated on authority (that Inspector Dinnie, of Scotland Yard, has accepted the Commissionership of the New Zealand Police in succession to Mr Tunbridge, who lately sent in his resignation.

At the local Police Court last- week, Samuel Hicks, a youth, was charged with having been found in the Star Hotel, Kawakawa, during the currency of a prohibition order. Constable Crean stated that the order had been made at Whangarei on July 16 last, and that on February 19 last he found him in the hotel in question. Defendant pleaded guilty, and was fined 20s and costs 7s. His Worship warned defendant that the order extended all over the colony.

Dundee magistrates have just inaugurated a system of public-house inspection by two plain-clothes constables. 7he men walk about the streets 1 , call at publichouses, and send reports to the chief constable. In a book they enter .details of each visit, stating the number present in the bar and the persons intoxicated (if any), the landlord being furnished with the report on a counterfoil. To prevent collusion with the publicans the inspectors are changed monthly.

“ Major ” William Runciman, who was recently sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment at Wellington, for victimising publicans by means of valueless cheques, has been remanded on a similar charge at New Plymouth. In this case a £5O cheque is involved.

At the Kawakawa Police Court, Uahu Timoko was charged on four informations for selling liquor at Aratoro on December 31 last. Defendant pleaded guilty to all the charges, and stated that he had only sold two bottles of whisky. Constable Crean stated that the offence was <•

committed at a Maori race meeting at Aratoro. The evidence he had would show that accused stationed himself in the titree on the course, and sold whisky all the day, continuing it at night outside a billiard-room. He asked that- defendant be made an example of, as there was reason to believe a considerable amount of the trade was carried on at native gatherings in out-of-the-way places, when there were no police present. Defendant was fined £2O and costs, £4 9s 6d on the first charge ; in default, one month’s imprisonment. On the second charge he was convicted, and ordered to pay costs, £4 8s 6d, in default, an additional month’s imprisonment ; and on the third and fourth charges, convictions were recorded without costs. Defendant was given one month to pay the.fine and costs.

At the quarterly meeting of the Waiapu (Gisborne) Licensing Committee, the Chairman (Mr Barton, S.M.) said the police report was so far satisfactory, but he had numerous complaints made to him about the manner in which hotels were conducted. He had told the complainants that if they put, their complaint in writing and placed it before the committee, they would be gladly inquired into. If persons had not the courage to come forward, the Committee were powerless to act, as it would not be fair to the licensees not to give them an opportunity of defence. It was the desire of the committee to have the houses properly conducted, and persons having complaints should come forward and state them in the proper manner.

A Paris correspondent writes, under date January 28 In consequence of the reading of Dr. Labordes's report at to-day’s meeting of the Academy of Medicine, the fight against noxious liquors in France threatens to take a new and more militant form. • In answer to the request of the Prime Minister to state clearly drinks, the manufacture and sale of which ought absolutely to. be forbidden in France, Dr. Labordes condemns nearly all beverages especially consumed by his compatriots, but bestows especial anathema on absinthe, which he declares is ruining both the souls and bodies of the French race. Although this is not the first time the Premier has demanded expert researches with a view to practical preventive means. The brewers, manufacturers, and distillers of liquor have begun to raise funds to fight the Government. It is significant of the sincerity of the Premier’s (M. Coombes’) movement that to-day the authorities of the Interior returned to the Pernod Absinthe Factory a case of 120 bottles which the firm had contributed for “ the relief of the starving Bretons.”,

Wine germs, which make it possible to duplicate the famous wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, or the Rhine, are among the latest experiments of scientists. The germs are obtained from the dregs of casks which have contained genuine old wine, and those of each particular brand are placed for safe keeping in a substance prepared from Japanese isinglass and fruit juice. In the jelly-like mass the germs soon establish a colony. When needed sufficient germs may be placed in a tube of sterilised fruit juice. After two or three days the juice will be in full fermentation, with ' plentiful effervescence. This process is said to impart to the wine the exact flavour, bouquet, and characteristics of the wine from which the germs originally came. In France and Germany these germs are beginning to be cultivated extensively.