Trade Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 872, 22 November 1906, Page 20

Trade Topics

The name of Mr Wesley Spragg was mentioned one day las: week as a not unlikely candidate for the Manukau seat, but Mr Spragg denied that he has any intention of seeking election.

In Dunedin last week, a charge of having broken down whisky to too low a strength, preferred against the licensee of the Universal Hotel was dismissed.

Mr F. Watkinson, who it will be remembered was for many years outdoor representative of Cook’s Touris:s Agency, and who for some time has had charge of the Lake House Hotel at Rotorua, is now in the Geyser Hotel at Whakarewarewa. Mr Watkinson is thoroughly acquainted with the requirements of the tourist trade, and will no doubt do big business in his new house.

Mr W. G. Rae, of the Star Hotel, Newton, had the misfortune last week to be convicted on a charge of supplying beer to a man who was intoxicated. As came out in the evidence, the Star is an exceedingly difficult house to manage. The police admitted this, and Sergeant Hansen said he considered the house well conducted. His Worship Dr. Dyer evidently recognised this and did not order an endorsement. The intoxicated man is sometimes very difficult to detect, and it is regretted that Mr Rae has fallen a victim to such a case, especially in a house that is admitted by everyone is conducted so well.

At the Waihi Magistrate’s Court last Thursday morning,. John Lynch, alias Shang, was fined £5 and costs for having a bottle of beer in his possession during the currency of a prohibition order. Sergeant McKinnon prosecuted. R. Easter was fined, £1 and costs for supplying Lynch with beer. * * ' * *

The hotels at Whangarei did big business last week during the show time, the number of visitors to the town being very large.

The tobacco crop for last season in Queensland will be about 265 tons. The largest crop in one year was 506 tons. Practically all of the tobacco was of the heavier ’ type, suitable only for the pipe, and was grown in the Texas district, near the New South Wales border. The price will be about per lb, so that a very large cheque is due to growers. For the most part the tobacco is taken by the trust; but two manufacturers in Brisbane take between 70 and 80 tons, with a growing trade,, otving to the increased popularity of colonial tobacco. Pipe tobacco grow s , about. half-a ton to the acre; cigar tobacco about three quarters of a ton. Only about' five acres of land was urider cigar leaf in Queensland last year; but the area will expand to fully 50 acres this year, being grown all along the coastal belt. ’ 1

In the local Police Court last Thursday prohibition orders were issued against John Weymouth and William Webster. * *. * . *

Tenders are called tor painting and paperhanging at the Cornwall i Arrps Hotel, Thames. •

Somehow or other a report reached Paeroa one day last week that Mr. Pat. Quinlan, the popular licensee of the Thistle Hotel, Queen Street, had been killed in Auckland, the result of a t ramcar accident, Needless to say the report had no truth in .it, .Mr. Quinan,, we are pleased to say, being very much alive, and long may he continue so.

The Christchurch police,, last Friday, arrested two men, who are ho doubt expert burglars. Both were provided ; with crape masks, electric flash lamps, revolvers, and spare cartridges.

Last Friday, a deputation of Manukau electors waited on His Worship the Mayor (Mr. Arthur,, M. Myers), with the object of obtaining his consent to be nominated as a candidate for the Manukau Electorate. After a lengthy interview Mr. Myers, in expressing his gratification at the honour done him, regretted that he could not consent to their deputation’s request, as his time was now so fully occupied by Municipal matters.

In recognition of the opening of a new Court-house at Hamilton, the members of the Waikato Bar entertained District Judge Kettle and Mr. H. W. North-j croft, S.M., at dinner at the Hamilton Hotel.

A home paper states that the people of Great Bri ain are probably the world’s champion consumers of pills and other patent medicines. It is estimated that the annual consumption runs into a cost of £2,500,000.

There were no £5 notes before the year 1793.

There is a cafe in Venice which has never been closed, night or day, 'or 150 years.

The old saying, that it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, was amply exemplified on the evening of .he tramway dispute. The immense crowd that congregated at the junction of Queen and Customs-street, combined with the heavy rain, made hotel business in that quarter very lively for a few hours.

Both the hotels that, have recently been burned down at Waitara, were the pro perty of Auckland residents, well-known in the hotel trade. The first one burned down belonged to Mr. D. K. Leslie, and the second one to Mrs. Fairweather, widow of the late Mr. Sam. Fairweather.

At the next meeting of the Parnell Licensing Committee, which takes place on the sth December, Ennis Parris, of the Ellerslie Hotel, at Ellerslie, will apply to have his license transferred o Thomas McHaigh.

A young Maori -woman who had been having a good time in Christchurch recently at the expense of hotelkeepers and merchants/ was sent to prison for six months. I: was proved that she was an old offender.

In Wellington last Friday a strange case was heard in the Police Court, resulting in the commital for trial of a police constable named Jeremiah O’Brien. The charges against the constable are tha: he arrested a man for alleged drunkenness, releasing him shortly after and stealing from him a sovereign, the complainant also gave evidence that the accused had violently assaulted him.

A boarder in the Bridge Ho el, Waitara, which was burned down last Sunday morning, had got clear of the burning building, but returned upstairs to save some of his personal belongings, when he was overpowered and burned to death.

Jones enters a ’bus; ’bus gives a’ jolt, and Jones is landed in the lap of an elderly female: “Excuse me.” Lady (into whose lap he has squatted): “Excuse’, you? What are you, you clumsy brute—a heathen?” Jones ('apologetically): “Nd, madam. A Laplander.”- ,

Th England where licensed houses are allowed to -open, during certain hours on Sundays, a curious fact remains that no publican is bound to keep open on Sunday unless he desires to do so. When he obtains his license, or renews it, he can ask that a condition be inserted that the premises , shall be closed the whole of Sunday, and the justices are bound to insert it. . ,

Two hotels have been burned down in Waifara : during the last few weeks, most unfortunately the destruction of the Hast one was accompanied by the loss of one fife.

The absence of beer and o.her stimulants, and even water, at the Exhibition is commented upon most unfavourably by visitors, and the “Lyttelton Times” states the grounds are drier than Ashburton.

It was reported from Christchurch last week, that there is plenty of accommodation to be had in Christchurch, and a likelihood of hotelkeepers going back to their normal tariffs. There is a possibility of the tents in some hotel yards being taken down, at any rate until Christmas.

A correspondent to the “Australian Brewing Journal” writing recently from London says that although there are constantly enormous hotels being built in London, they all seem to fill. The Ritz Hotel, in Piccadilly, is a most gorgeous one. A carpet at the entrance, of “Louis XVI.” design, is stated to have cost £lOOO. Nothing but silver is used in the restaurant. On entering, there is a winter garden, with the floor of pure marble. At the Carlton Hotel they have adopted the Continental idea of a fishpond. You see a large tank, filled with live trout. You can select one, and five minutes after have it on your plate. They are brought down daily in large tanks, surrounded by ice, in an express goods train, from a fish hatchery in the north of England.

At Dunedin last Thursday, Alfred Oudalle, a chemist, carrying on business at the corner of Albany and King Streets, was to-day charged with having, between August 1 and October 27, stolen 14 boxes of Vanity Fair cigarettes, 38 boxes of Old Judge cigarettes, 71 boxes of tobacco, of a total value of £9O 12s Bd, the property of Rattray and Son. After hearing evidence at length, accused was committed for trial and admitted to bail, himself in £2OO, and two sureties. * » » » In the local Court last Friday, a prohibited person was fined £4 19s or two months imprisonment for procuring liquor and being found in an hotel. * * * « - Last Friday in Dunedin, Mr Thomas Lawrenson, proprietor of the Royal Albert Hotel, was fined £5 on two informations charging him with applying a false trade description to whisky in bottles.