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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 933, 23 January 1908, Page 20

It was reported from Wellington last week that a meeting of all interested in the liquor trade will be held shortly. It is intended to at once commence active operations in the campaign against the abolition of the liquor traffic.

At Oamaru last week Alfred Millen was fined £5 or in default 30 days’ imprisonment for having procured liquor during the currency of a prohibition order.

A visitor to a hotel in a provincial town was shown up to his bedroom by the “boots.” Wishing to know what the outlook from the window was, he asked, “ Does the window face north, south, east or west?” The reply came quickly—“ Neither, sir; it faces the back.”

We hear that Mr E. Y. Buller, of the Grosvenor Hotel, Hobson Street, has sold his interest in that house to Mr Crosby, from Wellington. We hope that Mr Buller will soon be in another city house, as both Mrs Buller and he are most popular and thoroughly understand how to conduct a house in the way it should be conducted.

Persons who make hop beer for sale are now required to take out a license to do so. The license fee is £l, but the Gazette notice that the license is required, does not say where the license is to be got.

The following is from the Gore “ Standard ” :—The employees of the Mataura Paper Mills—which are in a no-license area—wish to thank the ananymous donor who sent them a keg of beer on Saturday, by way of the Mataura river. He will be pleased to learn that it floated safely right up to the turbine grating, having piloted itself with unerring, instinct past weirs, by wash gates, thirsty navvies, besides we know not what other hidden dangers lurking in its path. If the employers might venture to throw out a hint in view of future gifts of a similar nature, it would be that a 'argersized keg would not come amiss at this season of the year.

At the Thames Magistrate’s Court last Thursday, a Fcensee and three men were fined in connection with breaches of the Licensing Act.

At Dunedin last Friday in the Police Court, Elizabeth Connolly, alias Payne, was fined and costs 15s, for sly grogselling on January 5. Defendant pleaded not guilty, alleging that the bottle of beer secured by the police was a gift, but the evidence of a cons tab 1 e and a man named George Ell’son, a police informer, served to secure her conviction. * * * •

The average Russian smokes 150 cigarettes a week.

The Sultan of Turkey does not drink from the ordinary water supply of the palace, but has sealed barrels brought specially for his own use every morning from a distant spring well. They are closely guarded to prevent any attempt at poisoning.

Mr Patrick Shaw, brother of Mr J. W. Shaw, of the Grand Hotel, Te Aroha, died at the Rob Roy Hotel, Waihi, last week.

Over six hundred thousand cattle are slaughtered annually for the manufacture of beef extracts.

An officer engaged on the Main Trunk Rai'way phophesied to a representative of a new paper at Raetihi, “The Call,” that within the next six months the Public Works Department would be running trains over the present gap, which would secure the union by rail of New Zealand’s two great cities —Auckland and Wellington. If this should be achieved it will take quite six months to ballast the line and complete the necessary station buildings. There is every prospect of the Working Railways taking the line

over by next Christmas, and making the through journey wthin 20 hours. « * * *

At Timaru last week at the Magistra’s Court, R. J. Pugh, a country storekeeper, was ned 20s and costs, £2 10s for selling beer without a license. Two constables from Christchurch visited the store on three occasions and were supplied with hop beer manufactured by Pugh which analysis showed contained 6.63 per cent, of proof spirit. Defendant said he did not know that the beverage was intoxicating. This was the first prosecution of the kind in Timaru.

An English merchant was a daily customer in a well-known restaurant, and always honoured the waiter in a most generous fashion, as he liked him for his attentiveness. One day, to his surprise, another waiter served him. “ The other waiter is here,” said the new one, “but he can’t serve you.” “Why not?” queried the astonished diner. “Well, you see, sir,” was the reply, “we played cards the other evening, and after he had lost all his money, I had the good fortune to win you.”

The evidence taken by the police regarding the fire which destroyed Parliament Buildings on December 11, has been submitted to the Government. The report is inconclusive, but goes to disprove the story that a ‘‘sh’voo ” was held in the interpreter’s room during the evening before the fire.

Replying to a deputation of twelve ladies who waited upon Mr Herbert Gladstone recently, in regard to the barmaid question, that gentleman was able to assure the deputation that the Government had no intention of prohibiting the emp’oment of women in licensed premises.

John Sheehan and Bert Duncan, both found guilty in the local court on charges of sly grog-selling, were last week sentenced to one month’s imprisonment each.

At Dannevirke the other day a man, for supplying liquor to a prohibited person, was fined £2, and the prohibited person for procuring liquor, was also fined a similar amount.

A young man named John Pearce Baker was before the Court last week on charges of obtaining good money for worthless cheques.

Martin Johnson, proprietor of the restaurant in which a fire at Hasting originated, has been remanded on bail on a charge of having wilfully fired the premises.

A Cromwell visitor to prohibited Oajnaru during the holidays, states that there was an enormous amount of drink about the town during the time he was there, and it was reported that a Dunedin brewery firm had sent about 1000 small casks, of five gallons each, to the place just before Christmas.

When explaining the conditions of the terms of the lease in connection with the sale of the Trocadero, says the Hastings “ Standard,’ the auctioneer made it clearly understood that any Chinese purchasing the lease would have to pay an additional rent of 10s per week.

In future cigarette-makers, under the amended regulations of the Tobacco Act, shall pay £1 for an annual warrant for every 100,000 cigarettes made by hand. 1 * » *

Mr M. R. McCraken, the well-known Australian brewer, with his family, has begun a tour of New Zealand. * * » «

At Oamaru recently, James Howard, licensee of the Georgetown Hotel, was charged with having sold liquor to be taken into a no-license area without giving statutory notice, the case was dismissed.

The average weekly wages paid to fema'e labourers of all classes in Germany is a little over qs each.

At Christchurch recently, the statement made by Sub-Inspec or Dwyer at the Magistrate’s Court, when the charges arising out of the Cathedral Square disturbance the previous evening were being heard by a Bench of justices, rather conveyed the impression that there existed on he part of the Christchurch public a feeling of hostility towards the police, which found vent when disturbances similar to the one under review occurred. From what Inspector Gillies told a reporter the other night, however, it would seem that the fee’ing of hostility is conned only to what he termed the larrikin class, and that so far as the great bulk of the people are concerned the utmost friendliness and loyalty exist towards the police. Inspector Gil ies said that New Year’s eve was the first occasion on which he had noticed any hostility on the part of the public of Christchurch to the police, and that hostility only came from the larrikin element. “ I feel perfectly satisfied,” added Inspector Gi lies, “ that we have the bulk of the people at the back of us, and in the case of a row we can depend on them for support. The larrikin element, however, is where the trouble comes from, and we intend to deal with those people very firmly.”