THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS' GAZETTE

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 964, 27 August 1908, Page 20

THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS' GAZETTE

Sly-grog sellers were heavily fined in the Wellington Police Court last Friday when John Millante was fined £35 for sly-grog selling, and Joseph Paiggie was fined £2 for being found on Millante’s premises. Two hawkers of intoxicants, named William Noland and Joseph McCarthy were each fined £25. Each of the chief offenders were offered a month’s imprisonment as an alternative.

What is designated as the True Temperance Association has been started in London. It aims at reform on a large scale of public-houses. Mr Balfour and Mr Austen Chamberlain support the new movement.

It is reported that in reply to an influential requisition, representative of the whole of the electorate, Sir Joseph Ward has selected Mr Vernon Reed as Government candidate for Bay of Islands seat at the general election.

In regard to the absurd and untruthful statements made by a visiting temperance lecturer from Sydney, regarding the drunks in Auckland during fleet week, his story was first given to a representative of the “ Dominion ” newspaper, and reappeared in the local “ Herald,” having been sent .through the Press Association. In view of the serious reflection that the report in Wellington cast on our city, it is passing strange that local patriotism was not sufficiently strong to prevent the publication of the untruthful and damaging statement.

A coining plant and five bottles of brandy, which it is believed were covered with earth for forty years, have been found near the workings of the Rocky Mountain Gold Sluicing Company’s mine, Beechworth (Victoria.)

Business men of Kansas and St. Louis have declared against Prohibition. Here is a resolution passed by the St. Louis Business Men’s Association:—“ Whereas, the adoption of general laws prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquor is being much, agitated, and whereas, we believe such laws violative of the personal liberty of the citizen, productive of hypocrisy, and disrespect of all law and a blow to legitimate enterprises in which a vast amount of capital has been invested; and, whereas, we believe this question one of vital importance to every business man, and that all who feel as we do should declare themselves and thereby strengthen the opposition to such legis ation; now, therefore, we hereby declare this association to be opposed to the prohibition by law of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors.

At the Paeroa police court last Thursday, a man named W. Redfern, was charged with being on the prem ises of the Tramway Hotel at Karangahake, after closing time, and with refusing to leave when requested to do so by the police. He was fined 10s and costs 7s, on each charge.

It was reported from New Plymouth last Friday that shortly after midnight the head waiter at the White Hart Hotel, returning from a dance, disturbed what appears to have been preparations by burglars to break open the landlord’s safe. In a sitting-room adjoining the bar, where the safe stands, were found four plugs of gelignite, two with caps attached, and two lengths of fuse. The window of the bar parlour was open, and a light was found in a sitting-room. On approaching the hotel the waiter noticed two men about the premises, but attached no importance to their presence until the discovery was made, which leads to the supposition that a clumsy attempt was about t<? be made to rob the safe.

Every day 45,000 sovereigns pass over the Bank of England counters.

It is estimated that 25 per cent, of the cigars sold in London are not made from tobacco at all.

In the local police Court last Friday, a young man named Harry Silcott was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment for stealing a gold ring the property of a guest at the Pukekohe Hotel.

We regret to have to record the death of Mr. F. J. Little, who for many years was licensee of the Globe Hotel, Wakefield Street. Mr Little was extremely popular among his fellow hotel-keepers and the public generally, his large heartedness, geniality, and general good qualities making him an ideal landlord, and one of the sort that will be greatly missed and ever regretted.

The Napier Working Men’s Club have carried a proposal to call for competitive designs for a plan for a new building, the cost not to exceed £lO,OOO. A premium of a hundred guineas is offered for the best plan.

At Feilding last week, the Cheltenham Hotel, owner by Mr E. J. Riddiford, and leased by Mr. S. W. R. Evans, was totally destroyed by fire. The only occupants were Mr Evans, his wife and child, and one boarder, who had narrow escapes, only getting out with their night clothes on. The origin of the fire is unknown. Adjoining buildings, including a general store and the post office, were saved with difficulty. The building destroyed, a large two-storey one, was burnt to the ground in fifteen minutes.

The Turkish Sultans have for generations smoked the finest cigarettes in the world. Cigarettes like these, bought over here, would cost quite a shilling apiece. In the Royal palace there has been from time immemorial a small cigarette factory—a light, airy room, a bale of exquisite tobacco, one or two simple hand-cutting machines, and a halfdozen workmen of marvellous skill. Here the cigarettes of the Sultan are turned out The best cigarette tobacco comes from Turkey, and the best of that goes to the Sultan. A hundred-weight of leaves is rejected before a pound sufficiently fine and flawless is found for the Royal use.

The promoters of the Brewers’ Exhibition in London on October 17, offer diplomas in six classes for wine and one for brandy, open to the products of colonial-grown grapes bottled in the country of origin. Entries close on October 3.

It was in a Dublin hotel, and as I closed the bedroom door (writes a newspaper correspondent) I noticed That the end of one of my bootlaces was inside the room —-the boot, to which it was attached, having been placed, as usual, outside. When I awoke next morning the boot lace end was still there, and I opened the door, expecting to find that the boots had not been cleaned. But I was wrong. A very careful hotel servant, a very model amongst “ boots,” had found the lace tightly gripped by the door, and rather than disturb me had carefully removed it from the lace-holes, and carried away the boot. Presently I heard a quiet noise outside the door. The model “ boots ” had brought my boots back again, and was industriously relacing that one which he had unlaced.

At Dunedin recently the Operative Butchers’ Association and Grocers’ Assistants’ Association decided that they could not adopt the motion remitted by the Trades and Labour Conference regarding no-license, as the question was one for individual action.

The other day at the Lyttelton Magistrate’s Court, before Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M., T. and W. Young (Wellington) claimed from W. R. Cooksley, licensee of the Mitre Hotel, the sum of £5O 15s for 5000 cigars ordered by defendant from plaintiffs. Evidence was given to the effect that in November last Cooksley had ordered from Mr Montague, traveller for Messrs T. and W. Young, 5000 cigars, and had signed an order which was made out in triplicate. Defendant stated that he had ordered only 500, but after hearing the evidence and perusing the signed order and the subsequent correspondence, his Worship gave judgment for the amount claimed with costs.

An American visiting Dublin told some startling stories of the height of' New York skyscrapers. “Ye haven’t seen our newest hotel, have you?” asked an Irishman. “ No,” replied the Yankee. “ Well,” said the Irishman, “ it’s so tall that we have to put the two top storeys on hinges.” ,‘ What for?” asked the American. “ So that we can let ’em down while the moon goes by!” said Pat.

On Saturday information was received that Mr Field, the proprietor of the Apiti Hotel, had been robbed of a sum of about £lOO (says the Feilding “Star”). The money was in the hotel cash-box, which Mr Field kept in his room, and included cheques, notes, and silver; and so far as is known, it was taken on Friday night. The thief or thieves must have effected a burglarious entrance to the room, and they were evidently no strangers to the place. So far, no arrest has been made.

Hamilton is generally known as the capital of the Waikato, and it is going ahead very fast. Naturally with the increase of business more and more people have occasion to visit the town. To these it may not be out of place to point out that the Royal Hotel is a very comfortable place to stay at. Mr. F. Molesworth is now the proprietor, and a popular host he makes. This is achieved by personal supervision as to the wants of visitors, and by keeping the best of everything. Under the circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the Royal is a favourite hostelry with the general public.

ABSURD EXAGGERATION.

The “ New Zealand Herald ” stated one day last week that strong exception has been taken in many quarters in the city to some remarks made in Wellington by the Rev. H. F. L. Palmer, of Sydney, who is on a lecturing tour under engagement to the New Zealand Alliance. He stated that Auckland had been treated to a bachanalian orgy for Fleet Week. As an off-set against this, the remarks of Mr Leonard Isitt may be quoted. On the Friday of Fleet Week he said that, as a temperance lecturer, he could only describe the behaviour of the men of the American fleet as wonderful. A “ Herald ” representative spoke to several police officers the other day on the subject, and the reply in every case was that the percentage of drunkenness was remark-

ably small considering the enormous crowds gathered in the city, and the fact that a round of festivities was on. “Of course,” said one officer, “It was to be expected that sailors let loose after a long cruise would get a little too much refreshment, but in the biggest percentage of cases they simply ‘ got merry,’ and probably many of them ‘ put it on.’ On the whole I may say that the police were more than agreeably surprised by the absence of crime and the small percentage of ‘ drunks ’ during Fleet Week. I think Auckland has reason to be proud of the well-behaved crowds, and of the general sobriety of the people, while the behaviour of the sailors, on the whole, would be a credit to any fleet of battleships.” If further corroboration were needed, the remarks of Mr C. C. Kettle, S.M., might be referred to. He said he was pleased to see. so few persons brought forward on charges of drunkenness, and he had been much impressed by the orderly behaviour of the crowds. “ To say that Auckland was treated to a bachanalian orgy,” said a gentleman who had good opportunity of observing the whole of the proceedings of Fleet Week “is simply absurd exaggeration.”

CONTRARY TO FACT.

The statement made by the Rev. H. F. L. Palmer, of Sydney, as to Auckland being treated to a “ Bacchanalian orgy ” during Fleet Week has aroused strong expressions of dissent from several members of Parliament who were in Auckland during the fleet festivities. Mr Baume, who has taken the trouble to ascertain the views of a large number of members on the subject, states that the consensus of opinion is that the remarks of Mr Palmer were quite uncalled for, and that the general behaviour of the visitors, as well as the Auckland people themselves, during Fleet Week was most creditable. Dr Chapple, a member of the no-license party in the House, speaking to the “ Herald ” representative, said that he was surprised, not to say indignant, that a statement so much at variance with facts should have been made by Mr Palmer. “As one who observed the conduct of !the American officers and men with a critical eye,” he said, “ I may say that their conduct throughout their stay in Auckland was most exemplary. I saw absolutely no intemperance amongst the men. I was also very gratified to notice that the proverbial respect shown by Americans to women was exemplified in the conduct of the American sailors.” Mr Laurenson also expressed the greatest astonishment at Hie statement. Taking the whole of the circumstances into consideration, he considered the small extent of drunkenness to be seen was phenomenal.— “ N.Z. Herald.”

AN UTTER FARCE.

According to a Parliamentary return, there have been sent into the Invercargill district, in accordance with section 5 of the Licensing Act, 1904, since no-license came into force there, 123,952 gallons of alcoholic liquors. Oamaru, since “ going dry,”

has received in the same way, 29,196 gallons, 37,766 bottles, eight barrels, 612 cases, one . keg, one jar, 18 hogsheads, and 167 v ,flacks of liquor. The Ashburton figures are 102,982 gallons, 3330 bottles, 8788 cases. These, of course, are only the declared amounts. How much is smuggled into these socalled “ dry towns” it is impossible to say, but it wouid doubtless far exceed the above’ figures. Yet there are actually people who think that prohibition really does prohibit. Surely the common sense of our Southern friends will soon reject a refutation which has proved such an utter farce.

NO-LICENSE.

HOW IT WOULD AFFECT BUSINESS MEN. No-license apologists long since abandoned as hopeless any attempt to appeal to the reasoning powers of the the electors. No one knows better than they how unsound economically their proposition is, and all attempts to delude the voter quickly, failed. Their appeal to our sympathies succeeded a little better, but the continued reports from no-license districts have shown how little justification there was for the high moral tone they adopted, and the public can no longer be gulled by mock heroics. Appeals to the head and the heart having thus failed them, they are making desperate attempts to recover lost ground by an ignoble appeal to the pocket. “It will pay you to strike out the top line,” is their battle-cry. “ There is a large sum of money spent annually in drink; if this were spent in other ways the business men would reap the benefit.” In other words, one body of traders is to be ruined to benefit rhe rest. It is scarcely a moral ground of appeal and it is certainly unsound. It would not pay business men. The capital invested in licensed premises is officially estimated at £3,677,665, and it cannot be supposed that this enormous sum would be allowed to remain idle if licenses were abolished. Other outlets would have to be found, and probably the whole sum would be invested in competition with existing businesses, which would suffer acco.dingly. It is extreme y doubtful whether no-license would mean “ less beer and more boots,” but it is certain that it would mean more boot sellers.-—“ N.Z. Times.”

SLY-GROG SELLERS FINED.

Before Dr A. McArthur, S.M., in Wellington, last Friday, Joseph Piaggie was charged with having been found, on August 9th last, on certain premises in Forester’s lane for the purpose of illegally dealing in liquor. Duilo Millante, who was not licensed to sell liquor, was charged on two separate informations, with having done so on August 2nd and 9th, by disposing of beer to probationer constables Macnamara and Ferguson respectively. John Macarthy and William Nolan were also charged with having unlawfully sold liquor to the probationer constables on August 9th and 16th respectively. Both accused pleaded guilty. In connection with the charges against Piaggie and Millante, Sub-In-spector Phair stated that the two probationer constables had been sent along to investigate on August 2nd, in consequence of complaints received. Two bottles of beer were purchased for 3s from Millante, some of the contents being drunk at the latter’s house, and the balance taken to the Mount Cook Police Station. The constables paid another visit on August 9th and got a bottle of beer for 2s. A second one was ordered, but before it could be brought a number of police entered the place. Search revealed eleven bottles of beer under the bed in a basket. For some considerable time past complaints had been made respecting the number of unlicensed vendors of liquor, but they were very hard to detect. Therefore he asked for the imposition of a severe penalty. Macarthy was apprehended in consequence of complaints having been received that men were going about and acting as walking beer shops. The probationer constables saw him going down a little side street off Taranaki street. After watching someone get something from him, which looked like a bottle of beer, they also went along and secured a bottle on payment of Is 6d. The case of Nolan was practically the same, his offence being committed in Courtenay place. Severe penalties were asked for in these cases also. His Worship said that though accused had pleaded guilty, he did not

give them much credit for that; they could not very well have done otherwise. Their offence was a very serious one under the law. For a first breach they were each liable to a fine of £5O or one month’s imprisonment, for a second one to £lOO or three months, and for a third to £lOO or six months. The great difficulty in discovering breaches of the kind was, no doubt, the reason for the severe penalties provided. It was also a reason, when offences were found out, why the Court should act up to the spirit of what the Legislature intended. Not only had they sold liquor in an illegal way, but they had interfered with the business of those who had got to pay a very heavy revenue to the State. It was no use fining them small sums, for as soon as they were paid, they would be at it again. However, he did not think that anything he could say would do them much good. Piaggie would be fined £2, with 7s costs, in default fourteen days’ imprisonment. For his first offence Millante would be fined £25, and for his second £lO, each with the addition of 7s costs, or in default one month’s imprisonment. Macarthy and Nolan would each be fined £25, plus 7s costs, or one month in prison. “ Can I have a week to pay in?” asked one of the accused. “ No,” said his Worship.

EFFECTS OF NO-LICENSE.

“ Traveller ” writes to the “ Otago Daily Times”:—“A few weeks ago I visited Invercargill, and can speak authoritatively of the drunkenness which goes on among the youths of Invercargill, both in regard to outside and inside drinking. In the footsteps of no-license has followed the introduction of the two-gallon keg. This means a cheaper and easier method of getting liquor, and naturally it is a means which wins the approval of all. But the pity of it is that the two-gallon keg has not been confined only to those well advanced in years, but it has now become the custom of hundreds of youths—many of them of an age which would prevent their being supplied with drink in a well-conducted hotel, to obtain their two-gallon keg of beer. The young fellows combine in parties of six and eight, each contributing his share to the common fund. In the afternoon, the eldest of the party buys a keg and secretes it in one of the town reserves, or takes it to a crib, which signifies a room or rooms where the young fellows gather for amusement. On the evenings of those days on which a keg is bought disgraceful scenes are enacted, and evil practices are performed. The most sinister feature of it all is that the incoming of the two-gallon keg has engendered the custom of drinking beer among the youths. This custom will grow into a habit, which will develop into a vice. Such conditions do not prevail in a well-regulated licensed town. In short, no-license is striking at the very foundation of the moral integrity of the youth of Invercargill.”

CURRENCY DIFFICULTIES

Mr Donald Macdonald tells a good story in the “ Argus ” regarding the American sailors and the currency question during their stay in Auckland. He says:—What puzzles them most is the English money. “Blamed if I can understand it! A shilling! I understand that’s a quarter-dollar. And two shillings! That’s half a dollar. But then What’s this here thing? (pulling out half-a-crown and planking it down on the dirty tea-stained table cloth of a crammed little oyster shop.) There’s a man here; he told me that’s half a dollar, too, and I just told him that I don’t know what to call him in New Zealand, but in America I should say he lied.” One explains that in Australia the halfdollar is sixpence more than the American half-dollar. “Now, there you have me right up against it,” he says. “That sixpence! I’ve been chasing it round all day. What’s sixpence? A half-shilling, and ten shillings is half a pound.” To hear an American talk English money you would think he was selling tea. They find it just as amusing as we. “Never stopped laffing since we landed this morning,” said our friend. “Those big, round copper pennies and halfpennies started me off, and I have not stopped yet.”

HISTORY OF THE CIGARETTE.

The modern cigarette seems to have originated in Spain, where maize or other suitable vegetable envelopes for the tobacco being unobtainable, a thin

sheet of paper was substituted. Thus the cigar and cigarette assumed distinct forms. A Spanish proverb declares that “a papelitos (a paper cigar), a glass of clear water, and a kiss from a pretty girl will sustain a man for a whole day.” The dainty, unsubstantial, airy cigarette is the natural smoke of the Latin people. Its use in America dates from only some 40 years ago. In 1845, a writer noted that the cigarette was smoked by foreign isitors only. The Crimean War of i 854-56 led many military and naval officers to adopt this mode of smoking, then common in Malta, the Levant, Tur-

key, and Russia. The first well-known person who smoked cigarettes publicly in London was Laurence Oliphant, who had acquired the practice during his many years’ residence in Russia, Turkey, and Austria. At that time smokers made their own cigarettes as they needed them. About 1865 or 1866 the use of cigarettes had so spread that manufacturers began to cater for cigarette smokers. Even then manufacturers employed only a single man, usually a Pole or Russian, to make up cigarettes occasionally. The firm that now turns out the

most cigarettes in England at that time made only a few hundred pounds of tobacco a year into the dainty, paper-enveloped rolls. The demand for cigarettes increased, and they are now turned out by machines, which are marvels of ingenuity, at the rate of 200 to 400 a minute. Rice paper, with which cigarettes are made, has nothing to do with rice, but is made from the membranes •f the bread fruit tree, or more commonly of fine new trimmings of flax and hemp. France makes cigarette papers for the whole world, the output of Austria and Italy being insignificant.

DRINKING VESSELS IN 1635.

An old writer in “Philocothonista,” a work of the above date, gives the following names of the tavern ware of the period:— “Of drinking Cups divers and sundry sorts we have; some of elm, some of box, some of maple, some of holly.' Mazers, broad-mouthed dishes, naggins, whiskins, piggins, creuzes, alsbowls, wassail-bowls, court-dishes, tankards, cans, from a pottle to a pint, from a pint to a gill. /‘Other bottles we have of leather, but they are mostly used among shepherds and harvest people of the country. Small jacks we have in many alehouses of the city and suburbs tipped with silver; black-jacks and bombards at the court, which, when the Frenchmen first saw, they reported at their return into their country that the Englishmen used to drink out of their boots. We have besides cups made of horns of beasts, of cockernuts, of goords, of eggs of ostriches; others made of the shells of divers fishes brought from the Indies and other places, and shining like mother-of-pearl. Every tavern can afford you flat bowls, French bowls, prounet-cups, bear bowls, and breakers.”

PRIEST DEFENDS SUNDAY SALOONS.

POOR MAN ENTITLED TO BEER ON SABBATH, SAYS FATHER M'CANN IN SERMON. The local option faction in Elgin (Illinois, U.S.A.), is in confusion today as the result of a scathing sermon preached by Father J. J. M’Cann, of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The ministers who are at the head of the local option movement were likened to one who “searches after dirt with a spyglass,” and were told that if they were to work as hard to save the souls of some of Elgin’s aidermen as they do to “take beer away from the poor labouring man,” much more good would be done. “Brethren, I beseech you,” said Father M’Cann, “while you are making your New Year’s resolutions, that you put in a clause that you will not join the local option movement that is sweeping across the country. “LOCAL OPTION FOR RICH.” “Every time you vote for local option you vote against the rights of thousands of poor men. Local option is all right for the rich. They do not have to go to the saloons. “Their wine cellers are full, and they have all they want to drink in the privacy of their homes. But when the labouring man wants a glass of beer the law comes and says that he cannot have it.

“There is absolutely no harm in Sunday saloons if they are conducted properly. The Sunday saloon is the poor man’s club. The rich man has a fine private club of his own, which sells liqiior every day and night the year round. ... PREACHERS RAISE WAR FUNDS. “He does not have to go to the saloon, and so he is for local option. As long as the peopie—the labouring people—behave themselves, they should have their beer the same as the rich man has his wine. “It is time these preachers were going in for something better than hunting dirt with a spyglass. The aidermen and church members need more moral suasion than ad the men who frequent Sunday saioons.” The ministers of Elgin have been busily engaged for some time in raising a 3000 dollar (£600) local option campaign. Father M’Cann said he was asked to join this movement, but refused because he believed it to be absolutely wrong.—“ Bar and Buffet.”

ON THE “LOUISIANA”

The social life of the American sailor is somewhat different to that of his brother on an English man-o’-war; and writing upon this subject recently in “The Chicago Sunday Tribune,” Franklin Mathews gives a detailed account of the social arrangements in vogue on board the U.S. “Louisiana.” He says a modern American man-o’-war contains within its steel walls a series of clubs —one large and several small ones —and the large club’s membership consists of the entire crew except with the exception of the officers. The officers’ clubs are graded according to rank. On a flagship the admiral may form a club by himself, or he may enlarge the membership, as Admiral Evans does, by having his staff officers join his mess. The captain is also a club of one member. The commissioned officers make up the wardroom mess. The midshipmen, junior paymaster, junior officers of the marines, and the pay clerk from the steerage mess. The warrant officers —bos’n, carpenter, machinists, gunners, and the like —have another mess, and the largest of the small clubs is that of the chief petty officers. With the exception of the general mess all these clubs provide their own supplies of food and drink. The government used to allow every man on a ship, no matter what his rank, 3 0 cents a day for rations. The members of the crew in the old days formed various messes of from twenty to forty members. Some of these messes drew provisions from the ship’s stores amounting to the value of 30 cents a day for each man. Others drew only three-quarters of the ration and commuted the rest of the 30 cents, to which they added more or less money of their own, and purchased food luzuries from time to time. The allowance of 30 cents a day to all hands was made just after the civil war, and Jack celebrated the event by a song which closed: They gave us 30 cents a day And stopped our grog forever. Jack’s grog did stop, although other navies still serve out liquor regularly to their sailors; but he got pretty good rations. There were times, however, when he did not fare

well. Sometimes the mess treasurer would go ashore with the mess treasury and would fall into the hands of the Philistines, and the mess would

have to go hungry or borrow' from the kindly disposed members of other „ messes.,. ~ - y : ■< With regard to, the wine mess, the , writer of the article points out that ' the mess is composed of such officers as wish to join it. They get their supplies from a dealer who backs them and to make up for breakage and loss they charge non-membefs of ; the mess 10 per cent, more than the : cost prices of the wines, beers, wa- ’ ters, and cigars consumed. The officers are not allowed to have distilled spirits in the wine mess. The menus of every ship have to be forwarded to the flagship every week, so that the admiral may observe whether rhe men have had the proper kind of food. Now Jack no longer kicks seriously about his food on a warship. No working man in the world gets better. There are two libraries on every ship, the ship’s library and the crew’s library. It is scattered about the officers’ quarters in various cases, some in the wardroom, some in the captain’s or admiral’s quarters, some in the steerage. There are about thirty classifications, dealing with technical subjects, with history, travel, adventure, poetry, a limited amount of -fiction, and so on.. The crew’s library is three times larger. There is a great deal of history and travel and adventure and some science in it, but the larger part is made up of as good fiction as the English language provides. The classic authors are represented, but a large amount of the newer fiction is also represented. You find Kipling, Anthony Hope, E. W. Hornung, W. W. Jacobs, Jack London, Weir Mitchell, Booth Tarkington, S. J. Weyman, along with Bret Harte, Mark Twain, R. L. Stevenson, Scott, Thackeray, Charles Reade, Washington Irving,, Bulwer Lytton, and so on. There are those who lament that in these days of steel ships and electrical appliances all the picturesque side of a sailor man’s life on a warship has disappeared. They talk of the old days of romance and poetry and sentiment aboard ship. Well, things have changed for the sailor man, but those who know how much his creature comforts have been improved, how his health is safeguarded, how his mental necessities are looked after, are glad with him that there has been a change. A warship is not intended to be a poetry factory. It’s a fighting machine and with the best guns that you can get you need the best men available to shoot them. No longer is the navy the last refuge to the scum of the town and country, the receptable of jailbirds temporary at large, the resort of men not fit for any decent toil on land. The navy needs men of intelligence and good character, the bright boys from the farm; young lads from the city and otherwise would have to spend their lives in factories. The navy needs these men, and it is getting them all the time. Why? Because largely there have been many changes from the old methods, because no working men in the world have better food, more comfortable clothes, more sanitary housing, more opportunities for mental improvement, more wholesome recreations.

A new scale of fees to be paid for licenses to manufacture tobacco has been gazetted. The new scale is as follows: —For an estimated production for the year of not more than 25,0001 b manufactured tobacco (including cigars, cigarettes, and snuff), £25; for more than 25,0001 b and less than 50,0001 b, £5O; for more than 50,0001 b and less than 100,0001 b, £100; for more thon 100,0001 b, £l5O. If a license is issued in any year later than the month of January the sum to be paid for it, and the amount permitted to be manufactured, shall be proportionate 1 to unexpired portion of the year. Andy McTavish was “no feelin’ juist weel,” so he went to the doctor and stated his complaints. What do you drink?” demanded the medico. “Whuskey.” “How much,” “Maybe a bottle a day.” “Do you smoke?” “Yes.” “How much?” “Two ounces a day.” “Well, you must give up whisky and tobacco altogether.” Andy took up his cap, and in three steps reached the door. “Andy,” called the doctor, “you have not paid for my advice!” “Ahm no takkin it,” snapped Andy, as he shut the door behind him.