Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 710, 15 October 1903, Page 23

Trade Topics

Forty years licensee of one hotel is somewhat of a record. Such was Mrsi H. Porter, who presided over Porter’s Hotel, near Malmsbury (Vic.), where she lived for the past four decades, and died on the 11th ult.

Among- the several American trading combinations which have come to grief within the last few weeks is the Malting Trust, with a capital of £6,600,000, which is making an attempt at reorganisation.

That Mr Rose, of the West London Police Court, should have fined Mr Percy Hales Prior, landlord of the Castle pub-lic-house, Holland Park Avenue, 20s. for serving a drunken man after the object lesson he had had, is somewhat surprising. This was a case in which the landlord might have been let off. In the first place he was not present when the drink was sold. It was the barman who served the customer, and it was stated that the man in question showed no signs of drunkenness ; on the contrary, he appeared quite sober when served. Thereupon the magistrate observed I had a remarkable object lesson this morning, showing that a man can simulate sobriety. A man was put in the dock on a charge of drunkenness, and the assistant gaoler said he was drunk then. Looking at the prisoner, I did not credit it. The charge proceeded, and defendant spoke with coherexce, but as the case went on the assumed sobriety gradually disappeared, and, in fact, the man grew drunk under my eyes. It showed me how a drunken man can pull himself together for a time. Quite so. And if magistrates, who have nothing else to Ido but to watch the accused before them,, are thus deceived, how very much more is a barman in the rush of business likely to be .mistaken. The magistrate was good enough to observe that the case was not a serious one, and it could have been wished that he had dismissed the charge.

The report and accounts of the Kitchen Committee of the House of Commons for the past six months do not; indicate that the legislators have passed any selfdenying ordinance. According, to the report the members expended some. £6OO on cigars and £4,200 on wines during the two sessions, while the. provisions amounted to no more than £6,500. The proportion of liquors to solids reminds one of Prince Henry’s remark on Falstaff’s hotel bill,, that it contained an intolerable quantity of sack to a pennyworth of bread—but no doubt the extreme dryness of the debates t. Compensation not having been “in it”) has had a deal to answer for.

At the Worship Street (London) police court recently, a transfer case was heard which shows how keen the police are in hunting up everything to the discredit of

a licensed victualler, who is bound to be the most immaculate and spotless being under the sun. One of the reasons given by a police inspector why a licenle should not be transferred from one publican to another was that the incoming tenant had been fined 10s. for being illegally in pursuit of game. Mr Cluer : “In the country, I suppose ?” The inspector : “Yes.” Mr Cluer : “That is no by a police inspector why a license He cannot poach in a public-house, and it is not likely that he will make a poultry shop of the place.”

Mark Twain tells of a man who, when he came home drunk, explained to his wife that his condition was due to the fact that he had mixed his drinks. “John,” his wife advised, “when you have drunk all the whisky you want, you ought to ask for sarsaparilla.” “Yes,” retorted the husband, “but when I have drunk all the whisky I want I can’t say sarsaparilla.”

A well-known clergyman in South Melbourne tells this of a man living in a small street at the back of his house. The clergyman had noticed that this toiler and moiler carried a great deal more beer about him than was necessary, and determined to snatch a brand from the boosing if he could. With this idea in mind, he spoke to the man next time he saw him staggering under his load. “My poor fellow,” he said, “why don’t you give up the cursed drink ? It’s doing you a terrible mischief. If you go on like this you’ll certainly fill a drunkard’s grave.” “That’s true,” said the, man, lugubriously. “If I go on I’ll fill a dozen drunkards' graves, sir. I’m a grave-digger !”

Says the Melbourne “Punch.”—The amendment of the Licensing Act brought forward by Mr Levi r M.L.C., would make the man who drinks the beer after trading hours as heinous an offender as the man who supplies it. If this amendment becomes law, a man caught illegally drinking in an hotel may be fined anything from £1 to £5. This should squelch Sunday trading. At present many hotels take their largest profits through the back gate on Sunday, and if that gate is barred they will have to shut down. The Levi amendment will bar the gate effectually. Customers don’t trouble themselves about the landlord’s risks, but few will care to drop in for a deep-sinker with the chance of it costing them £5.

A series of robberies have been perpetrated at Llangolle? . North Wales, et the hotels where subscriptions are collected for the town Accident Hospital. In one instance, that of the Wynnstay Arms Hotel, Mr Godfrey Allen, the proprietor,, possesses a dog known as “ Thistle, which yearly collects sums of money for the Institution. A copper when placed on the table is quickly removed,, but before dropping it in the box the dog waits, for the biscuit or lump of sugar usually given it as a reward. This box, containing six months’ copper collections, has been stolen.

A Melbourne suburban hotelkeeper, who has no wood to chop and no babies to mind, and consequently has a lot of spare dime constantly on his hands, recently started figuring out drinking statistics, and as a result imparted t- e following advice to a friend .—“My dear , one gallon of whisky costs about 215., and contains about 65 sixpenny drinks. Now, if you must drink, buy a gallon!, and make your wife the barkeeper. When you feel you need a stimulant. give her sixpence for a drink,, and when the whisky is gone she will have, after paying for it, 11s 6d left, and every gallon thereafter, will , yield .the. same profit. This money she should put away, so that when you become all broken. up and unable to support • yourself, your wife may have money enough to keep you until your time comes to ‘shuffle off.’” '

SLY-GROG AT AWHITU.

THE INGENIOUS; MAORI.

At Waiuku, on the 18th instr, four natives were charged before Mr H. W. Northcroft, S.M., with sly grog-selling at Awhitu. Paranehi Rore was convicted on two charges, a fine of £5 being inflicted in! each instance, in addition to which he was mulcted in costs amounting to £l3 ss. His daughter was convicted and bound over to come up for sentence when called upon." A Maori named Paho was convicted on two charges and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment on the one count and 14 days on the other, sentences to be cumulative. Accused’s wife was convicted on one charge an!d sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment. The lastnamed two did not appear. . . . A novel defence was set up by the accused natives, who in! good faith presented printed forms empowering them to sell spirituous liquors, said to have been issued .to them by a native named Kerei Kaihau, who claimed to have the authority of King Mahuta to issue licenses for the sale of spirituous liquors. The charge made for the licenses, one of which was issued on June 26, 1902, and the other on June 26, 1903, was £2 10s each, and both forms were in the Maori tongue. That of June 26, 1902, interpreted, read as follows :—“ The written authority of the committee under the licensing law ; Otautu Maori pa, June 26, 1902 , The character and extent of the work will be watched; License issued for Te Kirimangu’s hotel. Issued by Kerei Kaihu under the authority of King Mahuta to Te Kirimangu, hotelkeeper of the district of Te Taramu, Awhitu Maori pa town, upon payment. One payment a year on each and every year.”

VICTORIAN LICENSING ACT AMENDMENT BILL.

Mr N. Levi has again brought forward a bill in the Victorian State Parliament to amend the Licensing Act of Victoria, the main purpose of which, presumably, is to enable some of the coffee palaces to obtain licenses. The measure provides that a victualler may obtain the removal of his license to any house superior to that in respect of which he was licensed, provided that it is in the same licensing district. The house to which the removal is made must, however, be of at least double the capital value of the house removed from. Objection may be taken to a proposed removal under section 92 or 93 of the principal Act. It is also provided that the penalty for purchasing liquor on Sunday or during ?any other unauthorised times shall not be less than £1 nor more than £5. The same penalty is provided in the case of an'y person who orders or requests a child under fifteen to obtain liquor from a licensed house on Sunday. It is with the clause relating to transfers of licenses which we propose to deal. On the face of it, this clause may seem very harmless, but when one examines it closely, it very soon becomes clear that it is a very important matter. There is not the slightest doubt that the bill is being brought forward in the interests of the coffee palaces. It would be a gift direct from Providence for the Grand Hotel and the two large Melbourne coffee palaces to obtain a license, but the owners of the New Treasury Hotel, the Old White Hart, and others would look upon the occurrence as exactly the opposite. In the first place, looking at it from a licensed victualler’s point of view, the idea would never find favour, for it would be extremely disturbing to existing interests. A man might have had a license in a district for 20 years past, but there would be nothing to prevent someone from transferring the license of a broken-down house to another and better one in an adjacent spot, and the result would be that the licensee of the long-standing hotel might lose all his trade, though his house had hitherto been a good one. Is this fair to him ? We think it is decidedly not. Take any place where there is at present a coffee palace near a hotel. It might mean ruin to the owners of that hotel. When this bill is brought before the Legislative Assembly there will probably be witnessed the unique spectacle of the temperance party and the licensed victuallers fighting side by side. The temperance party are certain to oppose the bill on principle, and the licensed victuallers will oppose it as being against their interests.

There are, however, two points of view from which this bill may be considered — namely, the manner in which it would affect existing interests in (1). large towns, and (2) country districts. With reference to the towns, the bill is neither necessary nor desirable. A large number of the public prefer to stop at places which hold no license, but in a very short time they would find that they cannot do this if the bill became law, for it is safe to say that every coffee palace would endeavour to obtain a license, and in the majority of cases would be successful.

But in the country districts the situation is very different. There are places where it is desirable that there should be a hotel. In many instances there is a large population, and to meet rhe demand a good deal of sly-grog selling is carried on. It is these places that wodd be benefited by power being given for the transference of licenses. The difficulty, however, is that the bill, if passed, would apply to towns and country districts alike ; there can be no discrimination. It would be equitable, in our opinion, if some such measure can apply

to country districts where a license is really needed, but it would not be. right to allow it to apply to large cities to the serious injury of existing interests. The only way out of the difficulty would be to allow the transference of the license from one house to another, but to limit the distance of this house from any other licensed house already in existiCrico If a clause such as this were inserted it would prohibit any of the large coffee palaces in the city from obtaining licenses, but would allow a license to be transferred from a city to some district where it was really needed. We think this suggestion should be favourably considered by the trade, for by it existing interests would be conserved. —A.B. Journal.

THE LATE LORD SALISBURY AND THE TRADE.

In a sense, remarks the leading organ of the Trade, the country has not sustained a fresh loss in the death of Lord Salisbury, but rather we have endured a repetition of the blow which was felt on the occasion of his retirement from political life two years ago. But for nearly fifty years before that he had been building himself a great reputation as a man, a. noble, and a statesman, and the traditions which he upheld are a legacy for the nation that mourns his end. The late, and, in some respects, the greatest of the Cecils, though inheriting political aspirations, was not governed by political ambition ; he was a patriot in the best sense of that much misapplied term, and he was, as Mr Gladstone declared, “ perfectly honest.’’ He was by nature reserved almost to aloofness, but in his reserve was strength, and his aloofness was devoid of ostentation. His principles were of the highest, his integrity was unalterable, and his sound common-sense never failed him. Among his own countrymen he was not invariably understood, but among foreign nations his word was always respected. As the writer of the tribute in the "Temps” says of him: “ The grandeur and austerity of his thought, the sombre humour of his language, his reserved attitude, his haughty indifference to the vanities of the world, secured for him to the last the unquesstionable authority." This authority was evident when in three Administrations Lord Salisbury’s strong hand was upon the helm of State, and in time of peril he more than once saved the ship when she seemed on the point of breaking up, by his quiet strength and invincible good sense and the weight of his plain word. Coming into prominence in international affairs at a time when Mr Gladstone’s foreign policy had made us kin to shame and neighbour to disaster, his genius marked him out as a statesman of the first rank. It was as Minister for Foreign Affairs that his personal and mental gifts were seen to the most conspicuous advantage. When firmness was required, hesitancy was unknown to him’ —he had the courage of his own convictions, and he was not overanxious to explain himself. Though he was by no means deaf to mature opinions, he never played to the gallery, nor was he deeply concerned if his policy lacked an air of popularity. Perhaps lie was not popular on that account, but he inspired confidence which he never betrayed. His presence in the highest offices of the State generated a feeling of security in the country which the blowing up of the trumpets at the new moon could not convey, nor the display of bunting adequately interpret. So marked and singular was Lord Salisbury’s . success in foreign affairs that his fine work in domestic politics is apt to be overlooked. But here again his indifference to the gallery was as remarkable as his entire and wholesome lack of sentimentalism. His sympathies

weie broad enough to embrace all classes of the people, but the insanity of quick changes and lightening reforms did not appeal to him. He could change with the changeful times, but. he could stand firm as a rock when he saw that the momentum of the forward movement would wreak confusion ahead an,d leave disaster in its wake. His impregnable commonsense was of the very highest value to the Trade, who, confident in his judgment and his unimpeachable integrity, found in him a staunch friend, and a leader whom they felt secure in following. He was) no Axtremist, and in examining any question, and especially such questions as involved the creation of a public hardship, he took care to see both sides. The idea that a desire to effect some problematic good was a full and sufficient justification for the committal of instant evil, never possessed him, and for this reason the sentimentalists of many faiths have wept and wailed over his obduracy and denounced the uncompromising frankness of his opinions.

On more than one occasion, when matters of licensing legislation were before the House ‘of Lords, Lord Salisbury shocked the sensibilities of the teetotal soul by his outspokenness. He did not fail to detect the fallacy o£ the teetotal argument that a child under fourteen could come to more harm on licensed premises than a girl of seventeen or upwards. His comments on the point were received with groans in certain quarters, and what —the question emanated from the same certain quarters' —could be more undignified than his admittance that he sympathised with people who wanted beer on Sunday, because he knew that if he drank beer himself he should want it as much on Sunday as on any other day. No one knew better than Lord Salisbury that grandmotherly legislation for the supposed benefit of the workingclasses, without thoroughly ascertaining the views of those who were being catered for, was pregnant with grave dangers. Although he belonged to the cellared population, he was keenly alive to the claims possessed by the cellarless population, and was adamant in his championship of their rights. When he recognised that a preponderance of sentimentalists in the legislature was militating against the welfare of any class of the community he did not hesitate to advise an appeal to the people whose interests were affectedf On one occasion in the House of Lords he declared : “ When the opinion of your fellow-countrymen has declared itself, and you see that their firm, deliberate, suss tained convictions are in favour of any course, it is your duty to yield. But there is an enormous step between doing this and being the mere echo of the House of Commons.” Lord Salisbury’s personal conviction of that difference never faltered —lst the Trade hope that the same sense of the fallibility of yielding to the pulings of a party of narrowminded sentimentalists is the inheritance of the ministry which survives him.

THE LIQUOR TRADE TN THE GOLDEN WEST.

(By a Late Resident.) There are four breweries in Perth, two of them having a very large output, the other two small, though gaining with the increase of population and issuing of new licenses. The Swan Brewery has an immense output, and at the price obtained (£4 5s per hhd., less 10 per cent.), seems to be one of the mos' profitable in Australia. They all turn out excellent ale and fair stout, and at the price obtained they should do so. The wine and spirit firms, mostly located at Fremantle, also do a great business at good prices, standard whiskies averaging 48s to 52s ; brandies, 48s to 545; per

case ; bulk whiskies, 6s to 15s i.b.; brandies, 10s to 20s i.b. Aerated-water and cordial factories, on the contrary, obtain wretched prices for their goods', no sort of agreement existing between them. Waters are Is 6d to I.S less discount, and certainly poor class; cordials, 7s to 10s ; bitters and sarsaparilla, 12s to 20s. Imported waters from London and Belfast are largely consumed at prices from 3s to 4s per dozen. At the rates of wages and rents, none of them can possibly pay. nor can they turn out an article to compete with that imported. Some years since it was endeavoured to form an association to regulate prices and protect each other’s properties, but one firm, standing out has led to a system of cut-throat trade that benefits none of them. Bottles are sent from the city to the fields, north-west, and even other States, and cases are indiscriminately lent to hotel and shop-keepers alike. Hotel-keepers are having a good time, and, so far, there has been no excessive o-ranting of licenses. There are some 90 hotels in the city of Perth and suburbs, and consequently the ingoing prices are petty stiff." A good class hotel takes from £3OO to £4OO per week. Of these there are perhaps six. Medium house, £l5O to £250. The poorer class all go very nearly, if they do not exceed, the £lOO. From four to fifteen hhds. ale is the weekly average, one or twoi houses reaching fifteen to twenty hhds. Rents range from £6 to £3O per week. One house exceeds £4O ; ingoing, for six vears’ lease, from £2OOO to £BOOO. On Sundays all drinks are 6d. ; week days, ale, 3d. glass', 4d. pint ; all else, 6d. Sunday trading is easy and profitable to the hotel-keeper. A doorkeeper challenges ea'ch person entering, and asks, “Are you a bona fide traveller?” He can enter on saying “Yes,” and drink as long as he likes, without the slightest risk to the licensee, who can open inside either bar he likes for the day. If the police enter and take the name and address of the supposed traveller, and prove him not to be so, he is summoned and fined 235. 6d. A bona fide traveller is constituted in having slept three miles from where he was served the previous night.

In March last there were 2492 licenses for the sale of liquors in existence in New Zealand. Of these, 1513 were hotel and accommodation houses, and the numbey’of persons averaged to each house throughout the colony was 507 per county, and 508 per borough. The licenses brought in fees £54,514 to local bodies'. The approximate capital value of licensed houses in counties was £755,687, and in boroughs £323,398. Besides these, there was an annual value of £103,345 for licensed houses in boroughs, other than those covered by the previous figures, and this amount, capitalised at six per cent., would represent £1,772,417. The capital value of all licensed houses in the colony mio-ht therefore be set down at about £2,851,502.

In the 'course of an article dealing with the Ashburton Club case, the Christchurch " Spectator ” says : —“ One feature of all such clubs, however, is a good one. They cannot divide profits. This may mean cheaper drinks, or the building up of a large and valuable property from accrued profits. In any case, the principle of the elimination of private profit from the sale of liquor is what a large number of persons desire—many going so far as State or Municipal ownership ; and from this point of view, if the Ashburton Club should be continued for some time it will provide an object lesson as to what is the actual effect of closing up public houses and still continuing the sale of liquor under severely restricted conditions.

A brother of Pope Pius X. is said to be an extensive wine merchant at Mantua.

NOTES FROM THE CAPE.

(Own Correspondent “ L.V. Gazette. )

The first really noteworthy attempt at organisation on behalf of the licensed victuallers of this country is about to take place. Needless to say, after what I have already written, that the Capetown and Western Province Licensed Victuallers’ Association and their energetic secretary, Mr Johnson, are the practical organisers of a Tnovp.nip.nt. which means much to the present and future trade of the colony, and not only of the colony itself, but of all the other communities south of the Zambesi, which will in time come to be the United States of South Africa—and a United States under the British Flag. Needless to say also their interests, the interests of the different components, are not all the same. There will have to be a certain amount of compromise, which they are carefully preparing to face, but which, when faced, will enable them to put a bold front on their own, a determined opposition to those who put obstacles in the way of a legitimate trade ; and last, but by no means least, strike a blow in favour of true temperance by a single-minded opposition to the well-meant but none the Jess misguided efforts' of those who, in trying to do good, do harm., and so really work more mischief than is done by the commonly accepted principles of Jesuits, who work, or are and have been supposed to work, on other principles. How this is to be managed, how the Western Province men who would rather do without the custom of the coloured classes, not merely the aboriginal native, how they ate to work in harmony with their fellow traders in, say, Kimberley and Johannesburg, is a difficult question that they alone can decide. Before 1 write again, however, a conference will have been held, about which I shall be able to give some report in my next. In the district of Uniondale a license was applied for for a wayside inn, and the application was granted, the applicant having, or appearing to have, his requisition signed by a majority of the voters in the district ; that is to say, that out of 122 names, that were on the voters’ roll he had got the signatures of 64, while only 40 voted against. The ma;ority in favour was quite sufficient, and when the Noes ” were taken into consideration the

Licensing Court could not but consider that the applicant’s cause was gained, and the license was granted and premises opened. Then the fun began, fun which the unfortunate license holder, as he thought himself, found to be no fun. An appeal to the Supreme Court was entered when, to cut this story short* it was decided that out of the 122 voters on the list seven were dead, one was registered twice, and six never existed. Some of those who did exist had signed twice, and the final result before the Court was that 54 out of 180 genuine names were in favour of the license. Of course, that did not constitute a clear majority, and the license was cancelled, and the unfortunate holder mulcted in costs. Now, an esteemed friend of mine who once took an active part in an election in a London district, boasted that his party voted fifty-six dead men. They go better in this country evidently, and one would very much hke to know how many “ non-existents ” will ballot at the fortiu<wing general election. Whether the bogus votes were Dutch or English, Bond or Progressive, I have not the"’ least notion ; the fact remains that the “ slimness ” of the South African remains, and if anything of this kind of list-roll compiling exists in other places the state of the poll at the next election will give no indication of the actual condition of political feeling.

Taking up my “ Cape Times ” this morning, lam confronted with ghastly details "of the underground catastrophe in Paris, and, in spite of our own appalling fifty or so per year on the Wynberg line, I feel thankful that our railway magnates here run their lines above ground. But that is not what I started to write about! T notice, with great satisfaction that a Parliamentary Commission has issued a report entirely bearing out the contentions of Mr Dubois, the expert imported for forwarding the wine industry. 1’ brought up this matter in my last. Aftet all, it appears that Mr Dubois was right, and was driven from the post he was invited to fill by the very red-tapists who had called him over, probably to merely confirm their own sapient decisions. “If you call in a doctor, carry out his advice,” is a good old saying. If anything in this country wants, I will not say doc-' t oring, but expert advice, it is in connection with the wine industry, for you,, my dear friends, are not inclined to take our wines, as they now are, as a gift.

BEER AND BEER.

Beer ! Beer ! ! Beer ! 1 ’—the modern substitute for the nectar of the gods, whose divine afflatus has inspired the poet and sage of dear old England since “ ye good old times” when old John Barleycorn first consented to shed the glories of his beneficence. But (says a writer in the ‘‘ A.B. Journal ) how many sins is his grand old name responsible for '! There seems in some cases to be an utter recklessness in some of those who pretend to be his servants ; and it is a pity, too, because these unenviable mortals not only injure themselves, but most undoubtedly give the * ‘ Pecksniffs ’ an occasion for scorn. The whip of small cords should be used effectually in these most lamentable cases, but, like the unwelcome weed, they continually grow in noxious profusion. Of course, most of the hotels in the colonies are conducted with all the care and attention to sanitary requirements which the most scrupulous could expect and demand, but it is notorious that in many instances this attention is not bestowed, and the result is that the brewer gets a bad name, although he has nothing blamable to be attributed to him. I)n fy I .pcs and sepu.<:;« machines will destioy the flavour and arcma of the best beer that was ever brewed, and the unfortunate brewer is made to pay the penally of the publican’s errors of omission and commission. Not long ago a gentleman asked for a glass of beer in an hotel which, of course, shall be nameless. He is a connoisseur in the delicious beverage, and takes every atom of pleasure that can be coaxed out of the flowing glass mantled with creamy foam. M hat was his disgust, then, when his nasal organ was assailed with a scent inexpressible in words. The beer absolutely stank, and of course he refused to subject the delicate machinery of his corporation to a trial, the result of which he was not prophet enough to foretell. The barman assured him it was first-rate, and no complaint had ever been made of beer in that house, at any rate. This is like the story of the lodger who complained to the landlady of the towel being rather dirty, whereon she indignantly told him that fifteen of her lodgers had already used it, and he was the first who had complained. There is no disputing tastes ; tvhat is one man’s meat is another man’s poison. So many men —so many minds.. Our

friend, however, got a chum to experiment on the beer in question, and the result was a wonderful consensus of opinion. Some hotel-keepers leave things too much to their subordinates, because, perhaps, they are too great gentlemen to undertake the most important part of their exacting duties. It is very easy indeed, and pleasant enough, surely, to stand behind a bar in shirt sleeves of immaculate whiteness, and with diamond coruscations glittering in a resplendent shirt front, but it is widely different to descend to ignoble regions below and overhaul pipes and continuations of malodorous properties. Publicans of gentlemanly propensities as regards dress may not believe it, but tim public actually prefer beer drawn through’ a clean pipe by a man in a _ dirty, shirt than beer drawn through a dirty pipe by a man in a shirt of driven snow. Strange —but true. These pipes and continuations are in reality the essential objects of the publican’s 1 care, and when they are neglected, the publican—or rather the pretender to the name—has undoubtedly mistaken his mission in this world. “Non contigit cuiquam adire Corinthum ” is very true indeed in regard to publicans. Many think you have only got to take a pub., and there you' are ; but if a man is l not fitted for a publican he will soon find his mistake, and nothing will bring him to this position quicker than getting his house a bad name for beer. There are too many who regard an hotel as a quick approach to ease and dignity, and will hardly condescend to perform the ordinary duties which the business necessarily demands. Let us, however, say that these men are the exception. As a class, the publicans in Australia are men of as much perspicuity as those of any other trade or profession, and know well enough indeed that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. They know this, and act up to the standard of the maxim.