TH K. AUSTRALIAN WINE TRADE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 762, 13 October 1904, Page 24

TH K. AUSTRALIAN WINE TRADE.

Messrs P. B. Burgoyne and Co. write ;— “ The 1904 vintage will be long remembered, both as regards quality and quantity. After a series of dry seasons, the wet winter produced unusually fine growth on the vines, and the returns are in every way very satisfactory. r lhe grapes set well, and ripened evenly. Just before the commencement of the vintage, a heavy fall of rain made the growers somewhat uneasy, a wet vintage seeming probable. The contrary, however, was the case, as there were nearly eight weeks of unbroken fine weather, hot sunny days and cool nights. The wines generally are much above the average in quality, as can well be understood with the grapes free from all fungoid diseases. The sweet wines generally show a marked improvement on former years, whilst the export wines have even greater promise, and we have refrained from reporting on the vintage until after first racking, so as to better judge the quality of the young wines. Realising the requirements of the British market, the growers aimed at a very high standard, and in most cellars they have successfully produced a fullbodied, fruity Burgundy, for which Australia is world-famed. The wines produced from the vineyards situated on hill slopes are excellent, and they stand in a class by themselves —big, round, robust wines of fine colour, with fruitiness of distinct character. The Australian yignerons have made rapid strides in bringing their wine-making plant up-to-date by the importation of the very latest machinery and general appliances for the most cleanly method of handling the grapes. These improved methods of manufacture, together with the exceptionally good season, will mark the 1904 vintage as the finest quality wines ever produced in Australia.”

Scarcely had . the Royal Assent been given. Ao the' Eniglish Licensing Bill ere the Temperance leaders in the Congregational churches were to the fore with a manifesto against the measure, showing that the agitation which has been fought tooth and nail by the Trade is/ to be kept alive during the autumn, no' doubt in view of a possible general election early in the new year. Every taint which can be imagined as belonging to an Act of Parliament is said to be inherent in the one which is to come into force in January next. It is denied that the new Act is in any true sense the Act of the

people. “ Not only has there been no mandate in its favour, but, on the contrary, an unparalleled series of electoral condemnations at the oallot box ” say the worthies who sign this precious document, who also contend that “ the Bill would have been lost but for the votes of members directly interested in the liquor traffic.” There is much more in the manifesto, which winds up with the statement “ that the promise of the future is with us.” Should a change of Government come about at the next election (remarks the London organ of the Trade) it is quite on the cards that an attempt will be made to undo much of the licensing legislation of the present Parliament, and it behoves the Trade to be ready for any emergency.

Queer and contradictory magisterial decisions on matters affecting the licensees of hotels are not confined to Auckland, as the following from an English Trade paper will show : —“ That was rather an extraordinary decision which was given by the magistrates at the Newcastle County Police Court in the case of Mary Whittingham, the licensee of the Bridge Inn, Madeley, who was charged with selling drink to a drunken person, and with permitting drunkenness. It appears that at mid-day two navvies were seen by persons in a neighbouring inn to emerge in a drunken condition, that they then went into an adjoining field and drank three or four more lots of beer, which one of the men fetched from the Bridge Inn, and that later in the day the police found them in a drunken condition. This was the case as outlined by counsel for the prosecution, although the police were informed that all that the men had been supplied with at the house were two pints of ale in two bottles and a bottle of stout. It was sought to make out that the prosecution was the result of Trade jealousy, the Bridge Inn being the only free house in the village. Mrs Whittingham, who is a lady of seventy-four years of age, and an invalid, is the owner, and the house has been held by the family for virtually half a century. Since the death of her husband in 1898 she has carried on the business, and there has hitherto been no complaint against her. The Bench convicted the defendant of selling drink to a drunken person, and fined her 40s, and £3 6s 6d costs,, and dismissed the charge of permitting drunkenness. The Bench also dismissed the charge against the navvies for being drunk on licensed premises. It was argued by

counsel for the defence —who contended that there was no evidence of the drunken condition of the men until they were out of the house —that if a man, though he had had drink, was not drunk, purchased liquor in bottles, and it was consumed in a field by some person who became drunk, there could not be a conviction against a licensee for selling drink to a drunken person, or for permitting drunkenness ; and this logic seems to be irresistible. The conviction of the licensee and the dismissal of the charge against the navvies has been much discussed locally, and a Trade correspondent who writes to us on the subject rightly describes the decision as ‘ absurd.’

Mr C. A. Smith, president of the Bath Road Cycling Club, and mine host of the White Lion Hotel, Cobham, one of the most popular hostelries on the Portsmouth Road, has been having an interview with a burglar, in which the latter came off second best. Shortly after retiring for the night Mr Smith heard sounds of someone moving in his bedroom, and springing out of bed with a very prompt “Who’s there?” quickly obtained a hold of the intruder, who was minus his boots, but plus the cashbox, containing a considerable sum in gold and notes. After having dispossessed the burglar of his booty, the muscular president of the Bath Road Club asked his visitor whether he would prefer to be handed over to the police or dealt with by corporal punishment. The thief chose the former, evidently gauging his captor’s athletic frame, but Mr Smith decided that corporal punishment would be the most effective way of dealing with his visitor, whom he recognised. The hotel-keeper then took his captive to another part of his bedroom, where a number of sticks were kept. Mr Smith then laid him across his onee, and with the aid of a ground ash stick instilled the principle of “honesty being the best policy” with considerable vigour, only desisting when the stick broke. After that the burglar was allowed to depart, a sadder and wiser man, Mr Smith facilitating the thief’s departure from the front door with his foot, and throwing after the burglar his boots, which he had left behind him in the bedroom.

Some of the stories regarding the late Dean Hole are amusing, but speak well for his largeness of heart. Hearing a temperance orator declare that when a

man began to take alcoholic liquor he was sowing the seeds of mortal disease, the dean exclaimed “Rubbish adding that is father “sowed” till he was ninety, and that he himself was eighty, and was still engaged in that not unpleasant occupation. The dean’s sound sense enabled him to see that more harm than good was done by the exaggerated language of teetotal fanatics, and by their unjust demands. He recognised the fact that the licensed trade supplied a public want, that the working man was as much entitled to his glass of beer as the rich man was to his wine, and, while he was a true advocate of moderation in the use of alcohol, he was also an advocate of moderation in the law. He was impatient of schemes for the conversion of the nation to teetotalism by acts of spoliation. It was the dean’s theory that people who lived among drunkards thought that all the world was generally drunk. One of the most beloved of bishops was seated on a bench in some public grounds, and was talking to a little maiden who came by, some seven years of age. “I must go now,” he said, “and you must help me to rise, but I’m afraid you’ll find me very heavy.” “Oh, no,” she replied, “you’re not half so drunk as father often is.” Another of the dean’s stories related to the return of an Irish emigrant to his native land after long years of absence. The emigrant calls at the paternal home and knocks. The door is opened by one who is a stranger to him. “Is my father at home ?” asked the emigrant. “No, he is dead,” was the reply. “Is my mother at home ?” “No, she’s dead.” “Is there any whisky in the house ?” “No.” “Oh, murder,” groaned the emigrant, and he lay down and died. * * * *

On the occasion of annual Trade outings one does not as a rule look for weightv speeches, but when the members of the Taunton and West Somerset Association paid a visit to the beautiful country seat of Sir Alexander Acland Hood, M.P., the other day, the chief Government Whip embraced the opportunity of giving the licensed victuallers a little sound advice, which it may be hoped will not be wasted upon them. Sir Alexander said he had heard in the House of Commons that they were all a bad lot. Licensed Victuallers had been compared to “a sink of iniquity,” and some members of Parliament had described them as the enemies of the human race. But he knew better. His contention was that public-houses must exist because the British public wanted them for their comfort and convenience; hut as long as such houses existed they should be in the hands of good, sound, and reliable men, and such men must be given reasonable security for the capital they had invested in them. Only teetotal fanatics will deny that this is the common-sense view of the subject, and it could be wished that other members of Parliament were equally emphatic in their utterances. This is the view that has influenced every vote that Sir Alexander has given in the House of Commons on the subject, and which he assured them would* always influence him throughout his life respecting the Trade. Sir Alexander is right in saying that the licensed victuallers have their future to a large extent in their own hands. He feels confident that so long as they continue to conduct their business as in the past, and ueep their houses respectable, as well as giving their customers the best to eat and drink, so long will they have nothing to fear from any Government of the country. '

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