THE TRADE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 692, 11 June 1903, Page 22

THE TRADE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

(Capetown Correspondent of the ‘‘ L.V. Gazette.”) It has been some time since I have contributed to your columns, but the regulations of martial law have obliged me to keep my tongue quiet. Apart from the overhauling which even private letters from up-country had to undergo, there was the fear lest any criticisms in your paper might bring trouble upon licensed victuallers who least deserved it. Not that the restrictions dealt hardly with a class willing to work under regulations dictated by the military (who' brought grist to their mills), and made on behalf of the force and the public welfare. The military are no enemies to the Trade, and if teetotal friends would only act as fairly, and recognise with us that it is only the abuse of alcohol which should be checked, it would be better for all parties concerned. One item which I really meant to mention in my letter of a fortnight ago, but crowded out, referred to the manners of some of our brethren, I hope not many of them, in J ohannesburg. Surely the temperance advocates would have yelled with delight at the “ AWFUL GAME ON LICENSED PREMISES ’* evinced by a pugulistic waiter at an hotel in that golden 'city. He “ chucked out ” a troublesome inebriate, but he “ chucked ” so hard that the poor fellow knocked his head on the steps, and was unkind enough to depart from the realms to those of nectar and ambrosia. This was black-listing carried to the ad a,bsurdem point. Perhaps your sapient legislators would like this recipe to be followed at home ? Anyway, the judge and jury in the TransVaal did not think so, and the energetic temperance reformer who o sought to get rid of the “ undesirable ” got ten years’ hard labour. Quite right, too ! There is a medium in all things. But I reallv believe that if the Farnham justices and other lights had had the trying of that barman he would have been sent away with a benediction and a bonus. But I really want to satisfy the curiosity of your readers as to what I meant in my last letter by the expression “ Local Snobtion at Prohibitory Road.” Well, this is the little story. ►

A few miles north or south of the Zambesi (locality no consequence) there is a rising township. Near by dwelt a Government official, and poor but honest aspirants to a place in “ Sassiety ’ started to build, buy, or let housles in the vicinity. All classes of tradesmen saw their opening, and, of course, the innkeeper and the wine merchant saw theirs. Not so much the wine merchant, however, for he called for orders and delivered goods about the neighbourhood to the tune of thirty carts and waggons per week. Pretty good that for a self-righteous community ? The temperance party took alarm. An individual who had invested m a house took alarm also, and when) a bottle-store license was applied for there was excitement. A public meeting was held. The great man took the chair, ©aid he was a moderate drinker (in fact, he imported his own drop of mountain? dew), but objected to bottle stores and hotels as not respectable. A landed gentlenian whose property did not promise to become a suitable refreshment centre (being too far off the main road) followed suit. Father of family followed, saying he could bring his bottle of whisky from town, and ‘‘do it on his lone,” m the bosom of his family, whose members did not like him to stay away and play billiards. Of course, he did not say that if he played billiards he would only have about " a couple of glasses, and not a bottle. Then followed harrowing speeches of temperance advocates who depicted—there' I’ve no time to repeat the old familiar talk. But all licenses were refused, and so it went ort every half-year, the parties to the unholy alliance being . 1. The local magnate.

2. A gentleman who was forced to serve five years on the Breakwater for not accounting .for some thousands of pounds he had charge of as manager of a building society. 3. Small speculators who were persuaded to think that any license in their vicinity would do them mischief. 4. Wives who were afraid that their- husbands would stop out every night of the week, utterly oblivious to the fact that they were only too thankful to get home to sleep if household affairs would only let them. 5. Finally, the temperance party, who adroitly joined together the various elements. So far so good, or so bad, just as you please to take it. A club, more than

one club, was started, and flourished. But the climax has only just come, though nobody seems to have thought of it. It remained to a Hebrew gentleman to solve all the trouble. Nobody now wants a license, and nobody will oppose them, because they cannot without altering the law. It was certainly rough on the aforesaid parties to receive, even before the licensing court was assembled, a circular from a bottle-store keeper actually established in their midst. He had simply taken out a wholesale dealer’s license. Of course, he could not supply less than one dozen, but, as he took pains to tell his astonished neighbours, the law allowed that the best part of that dozen might be only table beer, the rest might be whisky, wine, Cape spirits, or any other intoxicating beverage. He could make up a dozen in any way you pleased and deliver the case. Ast for the the lonely bachelor or the boardinghouse resident, he has his season ticket to the near town, and he would rather spend his time there, in any case, than in the society of his landlady and her more or less fair daughters. But, oh ' the humbug of it all. Oh Prohibitory Road !