A REMARKABLE LIBEL ACTION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 772, 22 December 1904, Page 42

A REMARKABLE LIBEL ACTION.

At the recent Glamorganshire Assizes a somewhat exceptional action was tried, in which the rights of a licensed victualler as an ordinary citizen appear to us the main question involved. The action was brought by two publicans against two members of the Abergwyny Temperance Committee. The plaintiffs were in March last candidates for the Glyncorrwg Urban District Council, and the defendants thought fit to issue and distribute a circular containing the following passage :—“ We do hereby call upon all the electors, men and women, lovers

of morality and humanity, to do their utmost to oppose the return of the publicans, men who live upon, the degradation of the people, and pose as their friends,” and a good deal more matter in a similar strain. The conduct of the case by the parties concerned displayed a remarkable contrast, for whereais the plaintiffs had from the start, and even in Court, expressed themselves willing to accept an apology as a settlement of the action, the defendants’ case produced an amount of fanatical hostility that happily is rarely met with in a court of law. So much was this the case that the learned Judge, Mr Justice Wills, in reviewing the evidence of the Rev. Benjamin Davies, declared that “such an action as raking up past events of thirteen or fourteen years ago was eminently uncharitable, and he regretted it should have come.from a Minister of the Gospel, who, above all others, should set an example of Christian charity to his neighbours, whether they be publicans or anything else.” Although the action resulted in only nominal damages being awarded to the plaintiffs, we hope it will have the effect of opening the eyes of those living in the neighbourhood as to the true, character of those who would deprive a licensed victualler of his natural rights as a citizen, simply because he happens to carry on a trade which is unpalatable to their own narrow-minded views.—(“ Ridley’s.”) THE BIG LONDON HOTELS.

It has been said, and there is a good deal of truth in the statement, that there is no world like the catering world in which to make money. But the question is whether the hotel business is not beinga little overdone at the West End of London. Many magnificent caravanserais have been erected during the last few years, each one perhaps more expensively and luxuriously appointed than the other, and now that a wave of depression is passing over the country the keen competition is being severely felt. Novelty is always an attraction, and visitors to the metropolis from all parts of the world have been flocking to the new Savoy—the number of diners last Sunday evening were so numerous that accommodation had to be provided in the foyer—and some of the other palatial establishments have been feeling

what is commonly called a “ breeze.” Both the Cecil and the Carlton have to admit a falling off in public patronage ; in fact, the business done at the former during the past year was in round figures only £182,000 against £226,000 in the previous year, which tells its own tale. It is not simply a decrease in the number of visitors that is deplored by the managers. Their chief complaint is that their patrons do not spend the amount of money they have been accustomed to spend, and, indeed, as regards the Hotel Cecil, the chairman said that if the figures were disclosed they would astonish the shareholders. Visitors are now content to take a bedroom, enjoy the luxuries of the drawing-room and the smokeroom, and go out and feed at cheap cafes or restaurants, or if the weather is unfavourable, have their meals ia the grillroom. The directors of the Carlton, as well as the Cecil, realise al] this, yet the former are quite content to bring into existence another and passibly even more luxurious hotel—the Rita in Piccadilly—which is expected to be in full swing by the beginning of 1906. In fact, the argument used by them in support of the establishment of this new hostelry is that many visitors to London will reside in Mayfair and nowhere else, and that already many persons dine, lunch, and sup at the Carlton, although it is not convenient for them to make that hotel their headquarters.—(“ L.V. Gazette.”)

Lord Alwyne Compton, in presiding over the annual dinner of the Biggleswade Society at the Crown Hotel, only spoke a truism when he said the only way to deal with the drink problem was by a moral education of the people, and that the decrease of one or two publichouses in their midst would not have the slightest effect in the diminution of the amount of liquor sold. He said he had the greatest admiration for men who devoted their lives to matters of temperance, but they could not and must not think they were going to ride roughshod over the rest of the country. Holding these views he is proud that Parliament has passed the Licensing Act, which he looks upon as a great measure of temperance reform, and is satisfied that it will prove of benefit alike to the whole community.