A TIME FOR EVERYTHING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 933, 23 January 1908, Page 22

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING.

A well known Scottish architect was travelling in Palestine recently, when news reached him of an addition to his

family circle. The happy father immediately provided himself with some water from the Jordan, to carry home for the christening of the infant, and returned to Scotland. On the Sunday appointed for the ceremony he duiy presented himself at the church, and sought out the beadle, in order to hand over the precious water to his care. He pulled the flask from his pocket, but the beadle held up a warning hand, and came nearer to whisper, “ No the noo, sir,” he said, ‘‘ no the noo. Maybe after the kirk’s out!” SYDNEY HOTELS. Mr T. B. Dwan, of Wellington, who has recent y returned from a trip to Sydney, has been giving the New Zealand “Times” some of his impressions of his travels, and in referring to the hotels of the State of New South Wales, Mr Dwan said it was quite true '.here were a number of palatial residential hotels in and about Sydney, but the great majority of the so-cab ed hotels are merely drinking shops —shabby, di apidated and poorly furnished. They are mean looking places and would never be to.erated by the police of the licensing benches in .his country. When the local option vote was taken last month reduction was carried in a great number of electorates. Very many peop e seem to have mixed up the issues, but before Parliament prorogued the law was amended to make it quite clear that the votes for reduction and no-license should be added together in favour of reduction. In Sydney there was very great necessity for the wiping out of many of the drinking saloons. The city was very much “over-pubbed,” there being something like a thousand hotels in the city and the nearer suburbs, not to mention those a ittle way out. The carrying of the reduction vote was no indication of the success of the temperance party, inasmuch as a number of hotelkeepers themselves voted for. i eduction in the hope of wiping out a number of the undesirab'e hotels and putting the trade on a proper footing, as i is in New Zealand. As for the better hotels, the tariff is considerably stiffer than for a similar class of house in New Zealand, and is going up every day. The extras charged for are very numerous. IN DEFENCE OF BARMAIDS. Although most fads are supposed to find a ready . .and: sincere friend in Mr W. T. Stead, that gentleman’s views on questions connected with the public-house savour of practical observation and worldly wisdom? ' In a recent issue of “Black and White,” he gave h : s opinion on the barmaid question, and advanced —as will be seen from the following extract —some sound arguments against ousting women employees from the bar. “ I can never,” Mr Stead remarks, “ bring myself to

imagine without a shudder the publichouses of England without barmaids. Woman is the humaniser of mankind. To brutalise men there is no speedier or more effectual pan than to banish them from the society of women. Granting the worst that can be said aga nst pub-lic-houses, they would be still worse if women were banished from the bar. Those of my readers who have spent any time in American saloons will bear me out when I say that the presence of women behind the bar makes the publichouse less of a mere boozing den and more of a home. Of course, I understand the aim and object of those people who, having declared war to the death against the pubLc-house, adopt the cry against the barmaid in order that the public-house, being made worse by their banishment, may be brought appreciably nearer its final doom. But if the public-house is to reman an essential part of the social organism, as it has been from the dawn of history, as it is now, and as it ever will be till the advent of the millennium, ihen it seems to me that the crusade against the barmaid is an attempt to deprave an institution which stands in sore need not of depravation, but of improvement and amelioration. One of the fundamental and most clamant wants of mankind is society, and espec ally the soc ety of women. It is because they minister co th:s need that church choirs and Sunday Schools strike their roots deeply into our social life. I should prefer tha my boys met girls in Sunday-school and n the singing-class rather than that they should meet them behind a bar. Bu; I would rather that they met them behind a bar than that they never met them at all.” (We are indebted to Mr R. H. Lemon, of the Carlton and United Breweries Limiied for the copy of “ Black and Wh : te ” contain ng the article referred to in the above note.) —Aus.ralan Brewers’ Journal.

It is the man who looks for troub e who generally finds it. When Bishop Dudley was about to transfer the fie’d of his labours to Kentucky, some of his friends were inclined to remonstrate.

“So you are really going to K?ntuckv?” said one of these.

“ Yes, indeed,” replied the Bishop. “ But do you know what kind of a State that is?” inquired the anxious one. “ Why, I saw in th" paper that in a

Kentucky town one man ki led another dead for just treading on a dog. What are you going to do in a place like tha ?” “ We 1 !,” replied the Bishop calmly, “I am not going to tread on a dog.”— “ Raleigh News and Observer.” At Liverpool on November 15th, John Brown, a pawnbroker, was ordered to pay and costs for illegal y receiving a pensioner’s certificate in pledge. The evidence showed that, twenty years ago, James Goff, a private in a Gloucester ■ egimen, left the colours, becoming entitled to a pension of nJ a day for life. He borrowed a sovereign from Brown, leaving the pensioner’s certificate at the pawnshop for security. Every quarter he received through the post office a remittance for £4 7s 6d, Brown going with him on each occasion to show the papers. As interest on the sovereign he was given 7s 6d or ios each quarter. Aften ten years the loan was repaid and the pension certificate was returned, but later, about nine years ago, Goff’s chi d died, and he borrowed another sovereign from the defendant. The same system was pin sued, until Goff recently became ill, went to the Birkenhead Workhouse, and informed the relieving officer, who told the police. Brown, it was stated, had received over as interest on a single sovereign. » * » Reduced to despair by the scarcity of housemaids and the incompetence of the few who can be secured, Mr Van Ness Persons, of Ch’cago, has determined to make a final desperate effort to secure a model servan'. He is prepared to pay a salary of to a good housmaid, to whom he will a’so guarantee the use of a motor-car, a piano, with a competent musician to instruct her, entertainment for her friends, and ether allurements, which he sets forth in he following

advertisement:—“ Wanted — Maid for Housework; fruit, candy, and preserves furnished in plenty. This is an excellent opportunity to locate with a family of refinement ; every opportun ty will be accorded to make your situation entirely agreeable. Piano, with soloist; .ibrary, well supplied with lite.a ure, and reception room is at your service. Your company will be entertained if so desired. Dancing every n ght, how.ver, is prohibited, as the master of the house insists he shall have his coffee each morning at seven o’clock. Wages no object ; exact wha. you think is right. No wash ng, and na.ionali y is not scrutinised.—342o, Rhodes’ Avenue.”