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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 885, 21 February 1907, Page 20

- A list of the next quarterly meetings of licensing committees in the Auckland Provincial district is published in another column.

Messrs Macdonald, Wilson and Co., of 84 Lambton Quay. Wellington, have a very extensive list of hotels in their hands. A glance at their advertisement appearing in this issue will prove of interest to intending proprietors, for houses at all prices are quoted, and the firm is a well known and reliable one.

The accommodation for the travelling public at Hamilton is very often taxed to the uttermost, even with four hotels and several boardinghouses. One of the best of the latter is “Westcourt,” which is centrally situated, being only two minutes walk from the Railway Station. The house is well conducted, the cuisine excellent, and the new proprietor, Mr McVicar, looks well after the requirements of his patrons.

A cabman, fined at Willesden, England, for being drunk, said he passed the doctor’s test of buttoning and unbuttoning his coat, and then his shirt, but “wobbled” when told to walk backward.

We regret to learn that Mr J. J. Graham, proprietor of the Pukekohe Hotel, had to come to Onehunga last' Saturday afternoon for medical attendance, as he had contracted blood-poisoning. ..

A curious coincidence happened in the Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday,' says the Wellington “Post,” when three solicitors were engaged in cases against their namesakes. Mr Blair appeared for plaintiff aganst a defendant named Blair, Mr Peacock appeared against Peacock; and Mr Webb appeared against Webb.

Last week in giving evidence in a case in the Police Court, a constable, with great solemnity, informed the Court, to me amusement of everyone, that he was standing at the corner of Karangahaperoad on Saturday evening waiting for a tram car in plain clothes.

A wash-house attached to the White Swan Hotel, at Motueka, was last week burned to the ground.

While in Rotorua (writes a correspondent) I witnessed the poi, haka, and canoe dances at Whakarewarewa, and having seen dozens of pois and hakas before, I think they compare most favourably with. them. The canoe /lance- is new to me, and I think is a conception of Bella Papakura’s, one of the guides there, and siister to that popular guide Maggie Papakura. I spoke to’ several tourists, some of whom had their wives and daughters with them, and they thoroughly enjoyed them and said if they thought there was anything obscene about them they would not have stayed '

The people of the Bay of Plenty are very satisfied with, and appreciate the ijew mail coach route, Rotorua to Opotiki, via Te Teko and Whakatane, as it is much quicker, and passes through some of the most beautiful lake and mountain scenery I have . seen. The recent floods have played havoc with the roads and bridges on the roads from Whakatane to Oporiau and Tauratua, and Whakatane to Opotiki. The maize crops in the Bay of Plenty are looking grand, and* if they escape the frosts should give excellent returns. Opotiki is -quite lively since the advent of the. new settlers in the back country. New buildings are going up fast -in the town/ Amongst the improvements to other buildings since my last visit are those to the Masonic Hotel and Mr H. 'Larmer’s billiard and hairdressing saloon’ The former has had big extensioris, and is now up to date with acetylene gas, hot and cold water, etc., and is most ably conducted by Mr Geo. Mann. Mr H. Larmer has found it necessary, in order to meet with the requirements of his numerous patrons to extend his ..saloon and has put another new billiard table in, and has now a most comfortable and up-to-date show. The town is quite lively just now, with visiting horsemen with their charges, gettng ready for the coining race meeting.

]\tr S. L. Bygrane, who was for some years in the hotel at Waihou, has purchased Mr Jas. Sinclair’s interest in. the Masonic Hotel, Cambridge. Mr C. F. Wigley, who lately sold out c.f the Talisman Hotel at Katikati, was he other evening entertained at a complimentary social tendered by the residents of the district. During the evening the guest was the recipien. of an illuminated address in recognition of services rendered to the district generally. * * * *

In the local court las: Monday, William Smith, for whom Mr J. R. Reed appeared, pleaded not guilty to leaving his vehicle unattended in Wakefield-street, and to being found on .he licensed premises of the Fitzroy Hotel during closed hours. Constable Robertson said that on the night of the 10th inst. he saw the defendant’s horse and vehicle cutside the J'iizroy Hotel. Witnessed examined the wheels and found tha neither of them were chained. He then went into the hotel and asked who was the driver of the horse and vehicle. Defendant said he was, and remarked that he had been ou. for a drive with a relative of the licensee. Smith on oath said that he tied the wheel of the vehicle with a piece of rope. He admitted being on the premises. Mr Kettle said the evidence of the con-

stable was more reliable than that of the defendant. He would convict on the first charge, and inflict a fine of 10s and costs. The other charge was dismissed. « • « '

Cable news from London informs us that it has been discovered that .smuggling whisky on an extensive scale has been carried on by a firm in Ireland whose name 1 has not been disclosed. The system by which the fraud was committed was the conveying of the whisky by underground pipes from the distillery to a “duty-paid” warehouse. The Revenue Department imposed a penalty of £65,000, but there is an agitation afoot to secure the prosecution of the firm.

At Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, last Thursday, E. A. Grenside, licensee of the Mphaka Hotel, was fined £lO and costs for supplying Maori women with intoxicating liquors. J. S. Cooper, licensee of the Hot Springs Ho el, at Morere, charged with supplying a cask of beer to a native,. was acquitted, on the grounds that the beer was supplied to a half-caste.

COOKS AND WAITERS. Wellington is not the only place in which the cooks and waiters employed in public eating-houses claim improved conditions of labour. A few days ago a meeting of such employees, of both sexes was held at Adelaide, when some distressing stories were told of conditions in this line of labour in the South Australian capital. One was about a pantryman, wai er and sculleryman combined. He had been employed for six months on and off. The hours worked per week totalled eighty to ninety. He worked six and seven days alternate weeks and received 15s per week. One speaker said he was a waiter at a swell restaurant, and worked eighty to ninety hours a week. He had seen waitresses so dead tired that they dropped down on chairs in the pantry. He knew a woman who had to work 102 hours a week for 15s per week. He had been asked to take the place of a woman who had received 14s per week. “I will give you is more,” said the employer, but he had told him “No thanks.” “Now, brothers and sisters” he concluded, “don’t hesitate to speak for fear of losing your billet. You’ll get another.’ It was resolved — “That a union be formed to protect ourselves and prevent these men making

themselves rich while we are putting the money into their pockets.”