Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 698, 23 July 1903, Page 21

Trade Topics

Mr E. A. Keesing, whose photo, appears in this issue, is a young Aucklander of much promise, and has been connected with the Trade for the past nine years, add has always taken great interest in everything pertaining to its welfare. He has been on the clerical staff of the well* known firm of Campbell and Ehrenfried, and last week departed for Suva, Fiji, to take up a good appointment there. He is one of those young Aucklanders whom we OU! ill afford to lose. Before his departure he was the recipient of several handsome gifts from his late comrades, employers*, and friends, by whom he was highly appreciated. He was also entertained at a farewell dinner. We wish him every success in his new undertaking.

▲ new species of torture has been invented for Ashburton by a well-known brewer’s traveller, who, with the aid of several accomplices, “ tried it on the dog ” oil the arrival of the express at Ashburton on Saturday night. Several substantial bottles of beer were produced and partaken of openly in one of the carriages, and the bottles and glasses were then ranged ostentatiously upon the window sills nf the carriage. Quite a small crowd of thirsty souls gathered wistfully round the carriage in question and disioussed this new species of cruelty in lanSiage anything but complimentary to the dividual who invented it. Indeed, some of His Majesty’s window panes were for a time in imminent danger.—(“ Lyttelton Time®.”)

Mr P. Brodie has transferred the license Of th® well-known Fitzroy Hotel, at the iop of Wakefield-street, to Mr Welbume, a gentleman well and favourably known in afl—Mteiinn with the management of the Star and Central Hotels. The Fitzroy oaten for a good class of business, and Mr' Welbume is well, fitted,to attend to it.

The Cape correspondent of the London trade organ writes: —“ We shall, of course, have a small amount of legislation affecting the trade. The former head of the legal department of the colony is now associated with the Transvaal, so that . Someone else wil] have to fulfil his promise to take up the r aboriginal native ’ question and enlighten us as to * when a nigger is not a nigger.’ The difficulty seems likely to be met by a measure brought forward in the interest of the natives and to make temperance legislation for them. Mr Wilmot, M.L.A., the introducer, is a man of wide views and of some fame as a student of historical research. By no means a faddist of the extreme temperance party, he is disposed to consider the trade fairly. His Bill provides for the protection of the trade thus : Should a licensed victualler be at any loss to decide as to whether the applicant for liquor is an aboriginal native or not, he shall not be liable to penalty if he refuses to supply, unless proof ie forthcoming by the applicant that he has a right to be served. Such at least I take to be the meaning of the scanty account of the Bill so far published, and if so the mover of it will receive the support of the Trade. As I wrote to you last year on this subject, the hotel or canteen keeper is in the pickle of ‘ dunno where ’e are.’ At any rate, it amounts to the useful provision you have at home of ‘ knowingly ’ supplying.” .

The Palmerston North Railway Station Refreshment Rooms are under the efficient management of the proprietor, Mr W. Moore, who gives his best personal attention to the wants of the travelling public. It is one of the best places for a real good lunch, or for hasty refreshments, according to the nature of the trains, express or other, that pass through. The liquids will also be found Al.

At the Whangarei S.M, Court, on Tuesday, George H. Brewer, licensee of the Towai Hotel, was fined £5 on each, of two charges of Sunday trading, the penalty amounting in’all, with costs, to £lO 15s 9d. Three other similar charges were withdrawn on the suggestion of the Bench. The license was also endorsed.

Parker’s Trocadero. Private Hotel and Restaurant, Stratford, has been designed and is managed with a special eye to the convenience and comfort of the travelling public. It is situated close to the railway station, hasi ’commodious and wellventilated rooms, provides an excellent table, and makes the lowest pos'sible charge.

Cockayne’s Leviathan Hotel, Christchurch, is now one of the finest houses in the colony. The accommodation may be gauged by the fact that it contains 72 double and single bedrooms, with all accessories found in the best Home hotels. The cuisine is on a level with everything else, with private dining-rooms, etc. Visitors to the house will find themselves in luxury.

The Post Office Hotel, .Foxton, has been rebuilt and refurnished throughout, and will be found a most comfortable place to stay at. Travellers and others wishing to make themselves acquainted with the district will find Mr Gray the very man to supply them; and in the intervals of business there are some good things meet for sampling in the bar.

Mr S. F. Hedlund has taken over the Prince of Wales Hotel, Hobson-street, and is having the house thoroughly renovated and refurnished. Visitors and local patrons will find every convenience and all their wants catered for. The large and well-lit billiard-room is fully and well furnished. Mr Hedlund, who was favourably known as landlord of the Ohaeawai Hotel for seven and a-half years, has just returned from a trip to England, after a sojourn in Australia. While in Sydney he held the license of the Victoria Hotel, in Oxford-street, and also of the Standard Hotel, in Cuba-street. His preference is for New Zealand, and he has returned to Auckland with the intention of settling down in the Prince of Wales Hotel, which he hopes to make one of the most popular houses in the city.

The well-known hostelry at Ellers the Harp of Erin, was totally stroyed by fire on Monday morn: Mrs Lennard, the wife of the licensee, i awakened about two o’clock by the soi of falling objects and roused her I band, who got outside the door only find the whole place enveloped in sme He quickly roused the other members his family and household, and all esca: with some difficulty by means of thq I cony ladder. In less than half-an-hour whole building was in ashes, but owing the absence of wind the stabling and ot outbuildings were saved. The house 5 owned by Hancock and Co., and firm had just spent a considerable sum repainting the structure throughout. ’ insurances on the buildings amount £.1600, and there was £lOOO on the fi! ture and stock. The offices affected are Imperial, New Zealand, South Briti .and Standard. The loss will greatly cecd the insurances. There is no clue the cause of the fire. Mr Lennaid t transferred the license to Mr Geo Wright, and was about to ieave the ho; In a few days he and nis familv have been safely installed elsewhere w all their household treasures about t!.v but now these are destroyed.

The “rights of managers” and .1 “rights of owners” are two quesfic which are just now very much, to the f< at Birmingham in connection with transfer of licenses. That Mr Artl Chamberlain is determined to stick for the former is shown by his red decisions. In one case exception v taken to a clause in the agreement un which it was proposed to give licensee a certain sum in lieu of month’s notice, and the application t granted only on this amount being ms equivalent to the. full wages due for : period. In another case he insisted the removal from an agreement of clause enabling the owner to dismiss manager without notice, in the event his not being satisfied with the cond’ of the business. “We shall not p that,” said he. '“(You give the man interest in the business at all.” other cases twenty-eight days’ not was insisted upon.

THE NEED OF COMBINATION.

The following article, taken from the London “ Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette,” deals with subjects with which we are so familiar in this colony that we shall be rendering a service to the Trade here, by printing it in extenso :— “ Day by day the public are surely waking up to the fact that their interests are more closely allied with the interests of the Trade than they have, until recently, been able to realise. Legislative proposals to impose severer restrictions on licenseholders ; the ministerial disinclination to remove the grievous burden which is pressing upon the licensed industry ; and unfounded aspersions upon the character of licensed houses, are, it is now seen, as unjust to the public as to the publican. In pocket as well as in reputation the unfairness is felt by both, if not in the same degree, at least with sufficient poignancy to make the man in the street reflect upon the seriousness of the situation. In the recent appeals to the Salford Quarter Sessions against the decision of licensing i "notices—all of which, by-the-bye, were alOwed —two licenses had been refused on the ground that the houses for which they were required had become the resort of bad characters and loose women. The applicants, happily, had no difficulty in refuting these infamous 1 libels, and in so doing, they not only preserved the character of their houses, but vindicated the good names of their customers. To have allowed these decisions! to go by default would have been to have suffered a grave stigma to attach to a large class of reputable persons. The publican, in each oaae referred to, acted in the interests of his clientele as much as in his own, and in so doing fully justified Mr George Bernard Shaw’s tardy, but frank admission, that he has invariably found the publican to be a man of broad views and public spirit, who takes a generous and public view about public affairs. “ Again, in the case heard at the Greenwich Police Court, in which a licensee WU charged with serving a drunken person, the defendant not only rebutted a combined attempt on the' part of three police constables to injure him' in the conduct of- his business, but he succeeded in clearing an innocent man of a most damaging imputation. Of . less immediate

concern to the general public, but important as bearing out Mr Shaw’s testimony to the public spirit that prevails amongst licensed victuallers, was. the successful appeal against a, conviction under the Child Messenger Act. It i& of interest, also, as illustrating the hardships that publicans have until recently been apathetically enduring, but which would mot be tolerated by any other class of tradesmen. The tendency among licensing justices has been to make the publican morally responsible for the evil sof drunkenness, and mete out to him the wages of sin that have been earned by others, and even police court magistrates have consistently made the errors of a publican’s employees punishable upon the publican. . This last miscarriage of justice has been obviated by the decision of the Lord Chief Justice and Mr Justice Channel, who held that if the license-holder managed his own business and took all reasonable precautions to prevent an infringement of the law by his employees, he cannot be held liable for the faults of his servants, but if he delegates his authority to a manager, he can still be held to permit, or to suffer for, what that manager does, and therefore s'till remain liable. The law, even as it is flow interpreted, puts the licensed victualler as an employer of labour upon a different footing from employers in any other trade, and . this, despite the fact that he is following a legitimate, reputable calling, and that personally, ‘ there is never any objection to him anywhere.’

“ In yet another instance of vexatious dictation by official bodies which hasi cropped up since the last issue of the ‘ Gazette,’ the public are even more affected than the publican. We refer to the proposal of the Edinburgh authorities to banish barmaids from the theatres in their city, and we learn, without surpris'd, that public’ opinion is so strong against the interference of the magisterial moralists, that it is exceedingly unlikely that the suggestion will ever be adopted.. But the mere fact that the advisability of taking this step is under the consideration of the justices, is a direct slur upon the citizens of Edinburgh. Even the magistrates make no imputation against the barmaids, their argument being that the bars are no fit places for respectable girls •to earn their living in. But the bars are

what the frequenters make them, and if they are not, as we know they are not, what the magistrates would have us believe, the proposal is an insinuation against the public morality of the city that no class of people can be expected to tolerate. But in this case it is fort, the public rather than the publican to resent the implied affront.

“So far we have only touched upon sUch points of common interest between the Trade and the public as concern ethics, but when we come to consider the pecuniary aspect Of the situation, it will be seen that the relationship is even closer and more binding. It is, of course, true that the independent license-holder is a responsibility unto himself, and in the case of his being turned into the street because his house is no longer necessary for the requirements of the neighbourhood, he and his wife and family are alone called upon to suffer. But in the case of the tied-house proprietor it is different. Although he will suffer personally in the same manner as his free brother, he will not. suffer; alone, for a very large percentage of the general investing public are directly interested in him and his breweries, and breweries possess a pecuniary interest for thousands of men and women all over the country. Brewery shareholders have for years past—since 1888 when Lord Goschen’s compensation tax was improperly applied—been paying far more than their just proportion of the education expenses, and they have suffered three additions in the way of war taxes which, imposed as temporary measures, have not yet been remitted. Every person who holds a single share in a brewery, a hotel, a railway company, or a theatre, is sharing with the Trade this extra burden of taxation, and they will have to help bear a further liability if the Trade is ultimately called upon to provide the means to enable the magistrates to continue their crusade of wilful and ‘ unjust confiscation of property.’ It is not a Trade matter —it is a public, even a national matter —and it is for the nation to declare, as they will probably have an opportunity of doing about the end of the year, whether or not they will continue to tolerate the ‘ gross injustice ’ which the present Government is making no movement to remedy.”

SIR HORATIO DAVIES ON COMPENSATION.

Sir Horatio Davies, M.P. for Chatham, addressed a meeting of his supporters last month, and in the course of hin speech he referr?d to the question of compensation. With regard to the measure that was passed by Parliament last year, they might, he said, “ take it that so far as the. Conservative party were concerned, they were not aware that that Act would have such a damning effect upon the trade generally. They had no idea that the magistrates throughout the country were going to confiscate property wholesale, land had;'he krtown it he would have been the last man to support the measure. If the country saw fit to, take away licenses, in all common fairnese people ought to be compensated to' the full extent. There were men in the coiiiltry who called themselves men of the temperance party. He was not going to say one word against those who called themselves temperance men, but he was afraid that in too many cases he must look upon them not as being temperance men but as faddists. The faddist was the last man to whom they could go to get justice. For that reason if meh holding licenses and connected with the licensing trade were not fit to sit on) the licensing Bench, then equally those men who represented themselves as being teetOtallerß and temperance men had no mOre right to sit on the Bench than others. ’ H* wished it to be clearly and distinctly understood that he was in favour of .compensating a man for anything they justly of unjustly took away from him.”