Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 821, 30 November 1905, Page 23

Trade Topics

Mr Frank Callaghan, manager of Alessrs Grey and Menzies’ aerated water manufactory at Hamilton, has been presented by the Paeroa footballers with a handsome set of carvers in recognition of his services to the club.

Mr G. C. Payne, of the Ohaewai Hotel, Ohaewai, died in Auckland on the 20th instant.

Wellington rumour has it that Freddy Baume is in the running for the portfolio of the Minister for Education should the Cabinet be reconstructed.

Thirty lives were lost by the burning down of a model lodging-house in Glasgow last week.

Speaking in the Wellington Opera House one night recently, the Rev. J. J. North said that the Western nations took alcoholic liquor and the Eastern nations opium, which was far worse than the gin habit, as it produced sterility of the race.

At a meeting in Canvastown recently, dealing with Prohibition of the liquor traffic, Mr Atmore said no law would ever prohibit—history had many examples of the futility of attempting to make people moral or sober by Act of Parliament. “The first prohibitory law was promulgated in the Garden of Eden, and it was broken,” said he. A voice: “Give us something up to date.” Mr Atmore: Ladies and gentlemen—a clergyman made that remark. Is his Bible not up to date?”

Mr Hans Jacobson, who recently died in Wellington at the age of 72 years, was a. resident of Reefton in the early seventies, and kept an hotel there for many years.

Mr Joe Molloy, of the Albion Hotel, Hobson-street, had the inside booth at the Takapuna Jockey Club’s meeting.

Dr. Frederic 8011. wh” taring in our town, says that he has been in every so-called prohibition State in America, and that he is an uncompromising foe to prohibitory liquor law. * • » «

What’s it to be—top line out and thraldom, or two bottom lines out and freedom ?

James Henry Rogers, charged at Waihi with the theft of several articles from Mr Ralph Montgomery’s hotel, at Waikino, was remanded until to-morrow.

A prohibited person named David Wright was last Saturday fined £2 or seven days’ imprisonment for entering the Grosvenor Hotel

Do not forget that Union is Strength. Without this your best efforts mav result in failure.

Mr Jasper Montgomery, of the Masonic Hotel, Devonport, had the rights of the outside publicans’ booth at the Takapuna meeting.

Mrs Payne, widow of the late licensee of the Ohaewai Hotel, Ohaewai, has decided to continue on in the business.

Mr C. G. F. Eagar, manager of the Bellevue Gardens, has been appointed manager of the Empire Hotel, Wellington, in place of Mr Rudolph Tudor, who has resigned.

In the S.M. Court, last Thursday, Mr Geo. Hyde, licensee of the Panmure Hotel, sued Mr Charles E. Naden, the late licensee for £lO, bting the amount claimed for board, a set 'of billiard balls (detained by the defendant), and money wrongfully paid by plaintiff to defendant. After the evidence had been heard, the Court gave judgment for £7, and costs £3 4s, the amount to be reduced to £4 10s if the billiard balls were handed over by the defendant to plaintiff within 24 hours.

In the Waneanui Police Court last Friday, David Elliot, fruiterer, was fined £l5 and £lO respectively on two charges of sly-grog selling, or in default three months’ imprisonment. A night porter at the Hotel Cecil, London, over-balanced himself whilst reaching out of a window and sustained such serious injuries that he died shortly after. Prior to the passing of the Gin Act, in 1736, Salmon states there were in London alone 7041 houses which sold gin by retail. * * * « IV hen a duty of 5s per gallon was imposed in 1736, many of the distillers took to brewing beer which had the effect of raising the price of barlev and hops. * * * * The best season on record has just closed for the Kentish hop crop. The Agricultural Show last week was a pronounced success, the large number of country visitors taxing hotel accommodation to the utmost. * * * * Most of the leading hotels report heavy forward booking of rooms from theatrical companies and tourists for the coming summer months. “Beer, Beer, Glorious Beer” was sung with enthusiasm at Samuel A. Tilly’s party in St. James’ Hall last Thursday night. It received an encore. * * * • Charles Kron, who had pleaded guilty to assaulting the landlord of the Grosnor Hotel. Hobson-street, received a sentence of two months in Mount Eden Gaol. y EEEEF ONE COUNTS. Every member of the Trade, their employees, and their friends must not forget that every vote counts. Let this be the' one absorbing maxim from now until the polls close next Wednesday night. The polls are now completed, every vote must be voted ; see that none are missed ; aim at having a majority that will for ever silence your opponents. Each of your friends will engage to vote ; each of them will, if you ask them, engage to see that others vote. Awaken the personal interest of each one you know, and on Wednesday night have a feeling of pleasure and pride in having helped to make a record vote for continuance and freedom. THE BUNDLE OF STICKS. , The fable of the bundle of sticks and its powers of resistance, while each stick can be broken easily if the bundle is separated, is especialfy applicable at the present time. Those whose desire it is to support continuance and freedom, those whose desire it is to preserve their businesses their livelihood, and the wherewithal to provide for their wives and children, must unite as one. There is no room for petty jealousies, personal animosities. or business disagreements. On Wednesday you engage in battle with a spc ion who from fanatical fervour may be compared with R., m em-

ber you have your all to lose. Remember, and ask your friends to remember, that the No-License League has nothing to lose. They arc playing the game to nothing ; you are playing the game tc all. Their defeat, to them, means nothing but disappointed hopes, frustratec schemes ; your defeat to you means start ing the world over again. A HOT TIME. The meeting held in St. James’ Hall, last Thursday night by Samuel A. Tilly, of the Salvation Army, and politically described as a no-license candidate and Government supporter, must be recorder as one of the funniest, and at the same time instructive- political meetings evei held in Auckland. Funny, because the audience had heaps of fun; instructive, because it went to show the overweaning arrogance of no-licensers. Perverted views of our liberal laws and of every thing that is liberal, breed the no-licenser. Once he has imbibed sufficiently of the cup of self-conceit and hypocrisy, he will take on anything, from spying through a public-house keyhole to governing New Zealand. With some people politics have become subservient to the licensing question. A declaration in favour of nolicense is deemed by a narrow-minded section sufficient for some political candidates. However, we will return to the delightful evening. Sam, or “Poor Old Sam,” as some of the beastly familiar audience insisted upon calling him, got on fairly well until he announced himself in favour of the abolition of barmaids ; his frail cause was then wrecked. As far as politics were concerned the meeting was all over bar shouting, and shout the audience did ; they yelled, shrieked, and laughed until the chairman said he thought the audience had had one of the funniest evenings for a long time. During the evening the audience sang several songs, including “Peer, Peer, Reer,” and “A Hot Time in the Old Town To-night.” REASONS FOR PROHIBITION. Outside the usual stereotyped reasons given by the avowed prohibition party, a variety of reasons are met with why some voters advocate no-license. Some of them are so frankly personal and vindictive in tone that the power to exercise a vote is simply a farce. The question of right or wrong in the matter is ignorantly set aside, and many votes will be cast in favour of no-license by people whose one aim is to injure, in so far as their vote goes, some brewer, publican, or connection of the Trade. That votes are used for vindictive purposes is beyond doubt, and regrettably permissable Threats to this effect are not uncommon, and when any voter allows his personal animosity to overcome his convictions, then the no-licensers have indeed gained a sorry recruit. COMPENSATION. For the twenty-three houses which the Birmingham licensing magistrates scheduled at last sessions, in respect of which compensation will have to be paid, it is stated that the sum agreed upon is over £40,000, the average Trade value of each house being estimated at £2OOO. The amount of contribution to the local compensation fund is about £2B 000 per annum. ASHBURTON AGAIN. In these columns it has repeatedly been urged that we need not go to America or turkey to see how prohibition works. We have examples in our own colony a few days journey from here. The latest news from this alleged paradise of prohibition is that no less than eighteen cases of alleged sly-grog selling were before the Court last. week. The cases were adjourned until to-morrow, and no doubt the details of the grounds on which these charges are brought will throw an interesting light on prohibition. One may well pause to ask if a small place ? b 7 nrton can produce regular crops of sly-grog cases, what sort of a AUCk, “ d

QUARTERLY LICENSING MEETINGS December, 1905. AVaitemata: Friday, December 1, Borough Council Chambers, Devonport. Thames: Friday, December 1, Courthouse, Thames. Bay of Islands: Friday, December 1, Courthouse, Kawakawa. Eden: Monday, December 4, Epsom Hall, Epsom. City of Auckland: Tuesday, December 5, S.M. Court, High-street, Auckland. Franklin : Tuesday, December 5, Courthouse, Mercer. Kaipara: Tuesday, December 5, Courthouse, Dargaville. Marsden: Tuesday, December 5, Courthouse, Whangarei. Parnell: Wednesday, December b, Borough Council Chambers, Parnell. Manukau: Wednesday, December 6, Courthouse, Oiiehunga. Waikato: Wednesday, December b, Courthouse, Hamilton. Ohinemuri: Wednesday, December b, Courthouse, Paeroa. Bay of Plenty: Wednesday, December 6, Courthouse, Tauranga. Grey Lynn: Thursday, December /, Public Hall, Eden Terrace. SOUTHERN CHANGES. From Wellington the following business changes are reported by Mr P. A. irab:—The freehold of the Metropolitan Hotel, Molesw orth-street, Wellington, to Mr James Hawkins, of New Plymouth ; Mr A. Mangu son’s interest in the lease and furniture of the Eketahuna Hotel, Eketahuna, to Mr R. Seymour, late oi Petone ; Mr Walter Lewis’ interest in the ease and furniture of I he Shamrock Hotel, Wellington, to Mr A. Nannestead, of Wellington. WHISKY APPRECIATED. In the story of the wreck of the La Bella, which occurred near Warrnambool lately, and which is more vividly brought before as by the fact that the ship and crew were known in our city, one of the survivors brings his thrilling story of disaster and death, and the rescue of some of the members of the crew to a close with the words, “They had some whisky in the boat, and it was much appreciated as we were like icebergs, and our arms were blue.” Will our prohibitionists be horrified to read that men who had been clinging on to a ship’s

rigging all night, literally hanging twixt lite and death, watching their comrades being swept to destruction one by one, were blind to the allurements of a bit of blue ribbon, and had had so much cold water that they actually appreciated whisky. PROHIBITION PESTS. Alexander Tucker will have substantial reasons for remembering the 1905 electoral Koli. Last week in the local court he appeared before Air K. \V. Dyer, S.M., to answer a charge of having signed the name of Hose H. iNewman to an enrolment claim. He admitted the offence, and explained that the lady named is his fiancee. Jshe had, he related, been pestered by the prohibition people, and when she produced a claim for enrolment he had tilled it in for her. His well-meant effort to rid his fiancee of the pestering crowd cost him a line of Lo, with court expenses of 30s. A good L 6 10s gone to the revenue. Alexander will no doubt have a feeling of holy satisfaction when he and his friends get a little even on it by scoring out the last two lines on the local option paper. THE LATE MR. G. C. PAYNE. It is with much regret that the death of George Clarke Payne is recorded. Mr Payne had become one of the most popular hotelkeepers in the northern part oi this island, and was an especial favourite with all gentlemen on the road. Leaving the railway workshops, at Newmarket, some years ago, Mr Payne took over the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, at Russell, and subsequently selling out bought into the Ohaewai Hotel, at Ohaewai, of which place he was licensee at the time of his death. He, unfortunately, had had indifferent health for some little time, and on coming to Auckland recently for medical attendance he died at Gleeson’s Hotel, the residence of his brother-in-law, Mr Tom Meehan. Much sympathy is expressed for Mrs Payne and the late Mr Payne’s relatives, and they have the consolation left in the feeling that while his friends were many his enemies were few.

“The man I marry,’’ said the beautiful girl, “must be willing to go through fire and water for my sake.” “Say, can’t we compromise in some way?” queried her Kentucky admirer. “I’m willing to wade through the fire all right, but when it comes to water —well, that is asking a little too much.”

.i POSITIVE ASSURANCE. A rumour has been industriously circulated to the effect that the Trade are interesting themselves in the candidature of certain Parliamentary candidates. Nothing is further removed from the truth. The Trade are applying, wholely and solely, their attention to the last two lines of the local option ticket. J. he candidates are busy looking after themselves. The affairs of our country are such now that with many politics have had to become a secondary consideration. When an army of fanatical faddists arise who have an avowed intention of sweeping away liberty, confiscating valuable property, and throwing thousands out of work, how can politics any place in the minds of the latter. Ihe no-liberty party are to be thanked for the effacement of political opinions. With them the fact of a man being a yelling prohibitionist is sufficient evidence that he also possesses statesmanlike qualities. The people may be positively assured that the Trade are not running any candidate or candidates in 1905. BE MEN. The proudest privilege of men is freedom. Freedom of the control of his desires and appetite. Are you going to abandon that freedom ; are you going to place yourself under the ban of prohibition ? To prohibit means to forbid, to debar, to hinder. This is what you are asked to do by striking out the top line. You are asked to forbid yourself the power of discretion of what or what not you shall drink. You are asked to debar yourself from the privilege of drinking or not drinking any liquor you choose. You are asked to hinder the progress of your colony by helping to pass a law which at once means confiscation of property, the throwing out of employment of thousands, and a law which defeats its own purpose, because prohibition does not prohibit. It never did, it never will so long as human nature exists ; and you know it. “You called me a ‘political jobber’ in your paper this morning,” said the irate visitor. “Y’es,” replied the editor, “that was a bad break. I discharged the compositor immediately.” “Oh ! then you didn’t mean to say that ?”

“Certainly not. I wrote ‘robber’ very plainly.”

POLITICS AND LIQUOR. The confusion that exists between politics and liquor is lamentably commented upon in a recent issue of the “Lyttelton Times/’ in which comment that paper remarks that candidates all over the country are appealing to the electors as prohibitionists, and are being judged by their attitude towards the liquor question. Some of these gentlemen are quite recent converts to the creed, and are simply trying to catch a well-organised vote by parading their enthusiasm for licensing reform. If prohibitionists go on encouraging dissensions in the Liberal Party they may find themselves with Parliament only half-hearted about the concessions they have won. The above will be appreciated by Aucklanders. We know plenty such candidates; we have had a lot of him hanging round the coldwaterites; his chief recommendations to statesmanship are an avowed hatred of liquor, a loud voice, an unctuous manner, finished off with clap-trap and bad grammar. FATAL GAS EXPLOSION. A serious leak of gas in the Waverly Hotel, Flinders Lane, Melbourne, resulted last week in a terrific explosion. Mr McCraith, who was looking for the leak with a lighted match, received shocking injuries, from which he died in the Hospital. The leak was afterwards discovered to have been caused by Mrs McCraith pulling down a chandelier when it had an insufficient supply of water in it. Visitor : Have you any plans made up as to what you will do when you leave here ?” Prisoner : “I haven’t decided whether I shall reform and join the Church, or keep on in my evil ways and go into Parliament !”—Sketchy Bits.

Dundee, the only large town in Scotland in which there is no service of Sunday cars, has voted on the subject. The result was for Sunday cars 11,625, against 7496.

DAVIS’ W HIGGLE. With some people wriggling is the natural way to escape a straight out question. In regard to the famous anti-pro-hibition speech made by Abraham Lincoln, Pastor Davis falls back on the wriggling excuse, that the use of the portion of the speech bearing on prohibition is a sort of accidental forgery. Well, there may be lots of things that are accidental that we do not know of, but there does not appear to be any accident about Abraham Lincoln’s sayings. If there is one thing on earth that the no-license person hates it is a straight out question. Very few of them would like to give their real reasons for advocating nolicense ; very few of them have any real reasons. Let them handle, misquote, or if necessary brand as accidental forgeries anything that they imagine tells against them, and they are content. They know there is no forgery, accidental or otherwise, about that quotation, and that knowledge makes them wriggle. THE EIGHTS OF MEN. What Abraham Lincoln said about' the rights of men a good many years back is worrying some Auckland visitors a little at present. The portion of his speech bearing on prohibition is as follows :— “Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and in making crimes out oi things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles on which our Government was founded. I have always been found labouring to protect the weaker classes from the stronger, and I never can give my consent to such a law as you propose to enact. Until my tongue shall be silenced in death I will continue to fight for the rights of men.” Pastor Davis cannot stand this speech being quoted just now, it acts on him like ginger, it makes him jump all round. One night last week Dr. Frederic Bell, who is all against no-license, quoted this speech in the Federal Hall. The pastor jumped; he challenged the quotation, but Dr. Bell was ready. He offered to wager that his extract of the speech as quoted was historically true. He would give £5O to any local charity if it could be proved otherwise. THE WORKING Al AN’S HEER. In September last, the Earl of Harrowby opened a village institute and club, which he has had built at the village of Aston-sub Edge. on his Gloucestershire estate, and in the course of his opening speech he said such clubs were his hobby, and he felt they might do enormous good in brightening men’s lives and making them happier. He should not be satisfied until he had erected a club in every one _ 6f the parishes where he had property. Some people might be shocked because beer would be supplied at the club, but he thought the working man was like himself, entitled to a glass of beer if he wanted one. It is evident from the earl’s speech that he has studied the question, otherwise he would not use his money in the direction indicated. When he says that the working man is entitled to a glass of beer if he wants one he is only voicing the opinion of the large majority of people throughout the civilised world. That the working man cannot have that glass of beer unless he is prepared to buy and keep a two-gallon keg in his own house, is the unsought opinion of a few who are anxious to filch from him, a right which has been his and his forefathers. Should the no-license party succeed in their selfish desires, the question has not yet been answered as to how long the working man will be left in the enjoyment of that keg of beer, from, which he has no alternative in the shape of liquor. REFUSING TO SERVE. In the local Court, last Friday, a man named Charles Kron was charged with using obscene language in the bar of the Grosvenor Hotel He was also charged with having assaulted the landlord, Mr Alexander Schultze. From the evidence it appeared that the accused arrived at the hotel in a drunken state, and on being refused liquor he struck Mr Schultze in the face, and used very bad language. The salutary sentence of two months’ imprisonment was dealt out to Kron, who, no doubt, now concludes that licensees do not keep hotels for persons of his class. Accused was also remanded to Hamilton on a charge of having stolen the sum of £6.

In a West London Police Court recently, a witness said that the defendant “used his buttercups and daisies” frequently. The magistrate, inquiring, found this meant bad language.

CONSUMPTION AND ALCOHOL. It has become a notorious yet deplorable fact that the ravages of consumption have become more aggressive in all English-speaking communities as the teetotal or prohibition movement has become more intolerant and intemperate. In our great grandfathers’ time there were few cases of consumption, and today this scourge of humanity is the most aggressive bacillus the medical profession and the Health Department have to fight. The late Dr. Hughes, of Feilding, a few weeks before he died, read a paper on “Consumption,” which drew from Dr. F. A. Monckton, who fully endorses what Dr. Hughes said about the bacillus of consumption attacking us through the breathing apparatus, and in vigorous people failing to get more than a footing. Men who never lost an opportunity of drinking beer were better able to conquer and throw off attacks of consumption than the abstainer. In all his experience of the men connected with Truman and Hanbury’s Brewery Club, none of whom he presumes, were total abstainers, Dr. Monckton does not remember one case of consumption among them. So he concludes : —“ln formulating a diet scale for a consumptive I generally consider it highly important to order one glass of good stout every day.” Because of its abuses no one but a fool will deny that

drink has its uses, and Dr. Monckton candidly thinks “that it would be more beneficial to the cause of temperance if the Government of the day would perform a plain duty in stopping poisonous drink being admitted to the colony than in tinkering with the licensing laws.” The point of this paragraph, however, is that whereas consumption was practically unknown among our alcohol consuming ancestors, and little known among those who to-day use alcohol without abusing it, the disease is rampant, and never were greater efforts made to counteract its ravages. A little commonsense and diluted alcohol would also be helpful ; but, if prohibition or no-license is carried, the consumptive-inclined will be prevented from getting his natural stimulant fresh every day.