The Licensed Victuallers' Gazette

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 973, 29 October 1908, Page 20

The Licensed Victuallers' Gazette

At the Brewers’ Exhibition in London last week, there were 111 entries of colonial wines. Six gold, seven silver, and seven bronze medals were awarded to New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian growers. The newspapers comment favourably on the excellent display by New South Wales and South Australia.

Tenders are being called by the Public' Works Department for the erection of the new boardinghouse at Mount Cook. This will be a large and handsome structure, costing about £1.0,000. The building will be of local stone, in two storeys, with balconies, and will be up-to-date in every particular. Provision is made in the plans for 30 bedrooms, with drawing-rooms, smoke-rooms, and other requisites on a liberal scale.

It is expected that the writs in connection with the general election will be issued about the end of this week or early next week. Nominations of candidates will probably close on November 9.

A report which will find favour in Auckland is one to the effect that there is a likelihood of the San Francisco steamer service being resumed early next year.

The Christchurch “Press” remarks that a candidate in this Dominion might have the political genius of a Gladstone, or a Salisbury, but it would win him no support from the extremist on the liquor question.

A rumour, which we are highly pleased to say was quite untrue, was circulated last Thursday to the effect that Mr Sam. Draffin, of the Waipa Hotel, Ngaruawahia was seriously ill. Mr Draffin’s many friends will be pleased to know that he is enjoying first class health and hopes to be able to attend to his duties as host of the hotel for many years to come.

At the next meeting of the City of Auckland Licensing Committee, which is to be held on December Ist, an application will be made for the permanent transfer of the Globe Hotel, Wakefield street from Mr F. T.'Lipscombe to Mr J. E. Parker.

A questioner asked Mr A. Kidd at his meeting last Friday night, whether he was in favour of a strict inspection of “the greatest gift to man” —beer. The laughter that followed the reading of the question probably prevented Mr Kidd’s reply reaching the interrogator.

A young man was arrested one night last week on a charge of having stolen a cash-box from the St. Heliers Bay Hotel, containing money and jewellery to the value of about £4O, the property of the licensee, Mr W. H. Wrathall. A remand for eight days was granted on police application, a necessary witness being absent in Hawke’s Bay.

The horrible accusation of drinking to excess may now fairly be laid against many strictly virtuous and temperate persons. In an instructive note on the subject of thirst the “ Lancet ” shows that when more of a palatable beverage is drunk than is actually required to relieve thirst, considerable harm may be done to the system. In fact, to put this statement more brightly, the drinker “is probably exceeding the liquid requirements of the physiological machine, normal course of his metabolism may be interfered with by the superfluous fluid absorbed.” This is a serious matter. The heated cyclist who stupidly forgets the normal course of his metabolism while ordering a pint of shandy-gaff, and only remembers it when his glass is empty, can have little further enjoyment on

his ride. He has presumably set the normal course of his metalboiism completely awash; and this must be a singularly distressing thought for any but the most reckless individual. Yet there is little doubt that the most temperate of us—even the teetotalers —habitually drink more than nature demands, and hence more than can be good for us. Our beverage has a pleasant flavour, whether it be tea, alcohol, or ginger-beer, and we drink it, not because we need it, but because we like it. If water were —as it should be —our only drink, we should drink it not because we liked it, but because we needed it, and we should be the healthier; Happily it is ' not’ our only drink; and happily there are moments when we are willing to enjoy our particular beverage and to let the metabolism go rip. Life is short; drinks may just as well be long.

POLLING BOOTHS.

The following will probably be the polling places in the Auckland City electorates: —

Central: Federal Hall (main booth), St. George’s Hall, St. James’ Hall, and Sailors’ Mission Hall. Auckland East: Drill Hall (principal), St. Benedict’s Hall. Epiphany Schoolroom, Grafton Football Club’s shed, King Edward’s Hall, and old age pension office (Custom-street East). Auckland West: Ponsonby Hall (principal), St. John’s Hall, Primitive Methodist Schoolroom (Frank-lin-road), Queen’s Hall, Bayfield school, Richmond road school, and St. Stephen’s Schoolroom. Grey Lynn: Grey Lynn College (main booth), Newton West school, Masonic Hall (Great North-road), Fire Brigade station (Dominionroad). Mount Albert school, Richmond Primitive Methodist Church, Arch Hill Methodist Church, and Richmond Hall.

THE LOCAL OPTION POLL.

In a recent editorial the Christchurch “Press” says:—The coming election, so far from being unimportant, is really big with consequences that must affect New Zealand for good or ill for many years to come. And yet there is every indication that the election in many constituencies will be fought on an entirely side issue. The licensing law as it now stands meets the wishes of a large majority of the people of the country, for we do not believe that any but a small section desire that it should be possible to carry no-license by a single vote. The administration of the law is in the hands of local bodies elected by popular franchise. Yet every succeeding election nowadays sees the important questions of national politics subordinated to the liquor question, as if it were a licensing committee and not a Parliament that was being elected. Men are pushed into Parliament or kept out of it in numbers of cases according to their views on the question whether or not a man is entitled to drink a glass of beer if he wishes. It matters not to the people of one idea who choose a candidate by this one shibboleth what his political views are so long as he has a good chance of being elected. If he reacts to the one test, well and good; if not, he might have the political genius of a Gladstone or a Salisbury, but it would win him no support from the extremists. It would be as sensible to settle the political fate of a country by making the question of compulsory or voluntary vaccination the deciding issue, or by dividing the voters into two camps of smokers and non-smokers. To that complexion we may even come at last. The present uncalled for predominance of the liquor question over everything else is certainly a step in that direction. It is a problem that

will never be settled. National pro- r hibition would not put an end to drinking any more than district prohibition does. But there is one way by which its interference with matters of greater moment could be lessened, and hat is by dissevering the local option poll from the Parliamentary poll. Political questions might then receive the attention they deserve, and would no longer be sidetracked in favour of a minor question as they are at present.

BAD CHAMPAGNE YEAR.

The present will be known as a bad champagne year. A considerable portion of the champagne country, especially the large area between Cumieres and Mareuil, has been devastated by mildew. Proprietors of vineyards, peasants, and all who depened upon the champagne industry are threatened with ruin. At the beginning of the season rich harvests were confidently anticipated, but now the wine-growers declare that there will be no vintage this year. What the mildew spared has been ravaged by insect pests. A warning has been issued to the harvesters who annually migrate in thousands from the north of France to the southern districts for the vintage, that they will only lose time and money if they go to the champagne country this year. The extent of the disaster may be judged from the fact that many vineyards which in the spring promised to yield 1100 to 1200 gallons per hectare (two and a-half acres) will not produce even twenty gallons. LABOUR AND NO-LICENSE. (By “Labourite.”) (Contributed.) The Labour Conference which was held in Wellington a few weeks ago and which was admittedly not representative of the workers of the Dominion passed a resolution urging labourites to vote No-License at the forthcoming election with a view to bringing the liquor traffic under State Control. That resolution was carried at the instance of one or two members who are no-license advocates, and was supported by a section of the conference that looked upon the motion as a splendid expedient for avenging an alleged industrial grievance which hotel employees are supposed to have against their employers. What the workers, however, have to consider is whether their striking out of the “ top line ” would bring about either the objective of the conference resolution, or would result in any way beneficial to the economic or political interests of the Labour Party. Is it not approaching the ridiculous to ask the workers to join with the Prohibitionists in the endeavour to overthrow the present system in the hope that the Prohibitionists would afterwards join with Labour in fighting for the establishment of State Control. In other words the would-be leaders of the Labour Party are relying upon the support of the avowed enemies of liquor to make it a State monopoly.

Is it any wonder that the great mass of workers hold aloof from the political Labour movement in the Dominion when such blundering is made and such shallowness characterises the actions and utterances of its officials. What has No-License done to improve the economical condition of the workers, or to liberalise the politics of the districts where it has been carried? The No-License districts are among the most conservative in the Dominion, and the workers in those districts the poorest paid in New Zealand. As an instance of this, take Ashburton. Ashburton borough permanent labourers receive but 7s 6d per day under No-License as against 8s paid in the Boroughs of Lyttelion, Rangiora, Sumner, Akaroa and Woo ston under license. The general rate is Is 9d in the £, and the gasworks are owned by a private company which charges 8s 9d net per 1000 ft for gas for lighting purposes. The ratepayers in 1904 rejected a proposal to take over the gasworks. In Balclutha, which was the first electorate to declare for prohibition, borough labourers are paid but 7s per day as against 8s paid in the following towns in the same provincial district —Campbelltown, St. Kilda, Mornington, North-East Val'ey, and 9s in Green Island under license.

The Balclutha Gasworks belong to a private company, and 9s 2d per 1000 ft is charged for lighting purposes. These facts are conclusive proof that the carrying of No-License means low wages, high rates, and political stagnation. But the greatest blunder was made in asking the workers to indemify their political movement with its traditional enemies. The temperance societies generally have ever been the bitterest opponnts of prcgrssive democracy. In Australia to-day the Labour Party is unceasingly maligned by the temperance andl Church organisations. The Federal Parliamentary Labour Party has •within its ranks some of the most honourable and upright of men, with finely developed intellects and high powers of statesmanship. Yet these men are continual.y spoken of in the circles referred to as wreckers and revolutionises who would break up the home and destroy the sanctity of the marriage tie, etc. The writer has had sixteen years’ experience of Australian politics, and can speak feelingly on the subject. The experience of Australia is in a lesser degree perhaps the experience of New Zealand.

Did Messrs McLaren or Hindmarsh, No-License supporters though they may be, receive the support of the No-License vote at the last elections or does Mr McLaren or any other Labour candidate hope to get that vote in the coming contest. There can be only one answer. The NoLicense vote in the past has gone to the opponents of Labour, and in a few weeks the supporters of that movement will again walk into the booth and strike out the names of Labour candidates from the ballot-paper. And the great Labour movement is to be still dragged at the chariot wheels of its enemies. The dignity and the independence of labour can

be upheld,"however? by the workers determining to vote solidly for continuance as a protest against the attempt to associate the Labour movement with the narrow and reactionary principles of No-License.—“ N.Z. Times.”

LIFE INSURANCE AND BEER.

To ascertain whether the repeated statement of temperance orators, that the li"e. insurance companies consider a beer drinker a worse risk than a whisky drinker, is true or not, a large number’of insurance companies doing business, in the United States have been asked to answer that question. Twenty of the largest companies have recently responded.

In a general way all of them object to excessive drinking, either directly or by saying that they have no objection to moderate drinking, emphasising moderate. Some of them say that they consider in every individual case what moderate drinking is, but three of them adhere to Anstie’s limit, which is one and a-half ounces of absolute alcohol daily, or about as much as there is in three or four pints of lager beer.

Among the companies that answer frankly and without reserve is the Prudential. Its medical director, Mr. Edward H. Hammill, says: — “ That a moderate indulgence of lager beer is in no way harmful to a healthy individual. By the term moderate, we mean a glass at meals, or perhaps, four or five, possibly six, glasses within twenty-four hours.”

The Equitable of New York has this to say: — “ I am directed to say that this society does not discriminate against a person who uses beer moderately. If he is all right in every other respect, we wou’d consider such a man a firstclass risk. We would draw the line at a daily allowance of one and onehalf ounces of alcohol,. which is about

the amount contained in five tumblers of beer.” The Phoenix Mutual of Hartford. Connecticut, says:— “ The drinking of beer, except intemperately_does . not interfere with our acceptance of the application of a man for a policy.” The Mutual Benefit of New Jersey says:— “ We have not considered the moderate use of beer as prejudicing a risk, and in deciding what is moderation we are influenced by the applicant’s build, occupation, environment.” Ths is highly Important, as the insurance companies base their action on statistics that tell the truth. —“New York Herald.”

WHISKY V. BEER.

It is not a little remarkable that since early closing was Instituted in Edinburgh and Glasgow the consumption of beer, according to the Excise figures, shows a falling off. roughly speaking, of 200,000 barrels, while the consumption of whisky during the last three years has increased by 300,000 gallons per annum. What is the meaning of this ? Mr. James Gordon, president of the Glasgow Licensed Trade Defence Association, offers the opinion, derived from investigation and inquiry from those engaged in the Trade, that this additional whisky is being sold through clubs, shebeens and i’llcit channels in prohibited hours, and not through the legitimate trader, who has lost the sale of the beer on account of the restricted hours. We (“ LV. Gazette,” England), however, rather think that the consumption is due largely to the practice of carrying away bottles and flasks of whisky from on-licensed premises when the early hour for losing arrives, especially on Saturday night, between when and Sunday morning practically one-half of the arrests' for drunkenness in Glasgow are made.