THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS GKZEŢE

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 982, 31 December 1908, Page 20

THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS GKZEŢE

So large was the Devonshire app*e crop this year that many farmers found it more profitable to give the apples to the pigs than to convert the fruit into cider. Farmers are retailing cider at £1 a hogshead, or about 4%d. a gallon.

Colchester has a curious annual feast of oysters, which took place in October this year. There were 500 guests, including Lord Carrington, the Sultan of Zanzibar, the Chinese Ambassador, and a Bishop. Twenty fishermen began in the morning to open the oysters for the feast, and more than 500 dozen were ready, arranged on plates, when the guests arrived. In the course of the feast more than 10,0Q0 oysters were consumed —the greatest number swallowed by one guest being fifty-three. The record for the feast is held by a clergyman, who ate more than eight dozen oysters at a sitting. The annual cost of the feast, which is about £5OO, has to be borne by the Mayor out of his private pocket.

It would appear that the notice of petition respecting the Ohinemuri licensing poll was filed before the actual declaration of the poll, and it, therefore, became necessary that a new petition should be filed. This has been done, and the first hearing will probably take place next' week, when an adjournment will be applied for. It is understood that Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M., will in all probability sit in place of Mr Cutten, S.M., who has gone South on a month’s holiday leave.

After the final declaration of the result of the recount of votes in the. Waitemata electorate, it was rumoured that the no-license party intended lodging a petition against the poll. This rumour, however, has not been confirmed, and the time has now passed in which the Act' permits the lodging of petitions. From what can be gathered, the no-license party had collected evidence of what were considtred several alleged irregularities, but the case was not considered strong enough to proceed with.

The deputation which waited on the Premier last week in regard to the setting up of a Royal Commission to inquire into alleged improper proceedings in connection with the transfer of a license in the Ohinemuri district, which transfer took place some eight years ago, evidently thought that they had Sir Joseph in an extremely pliable mood. They no sooner gained his consent to the setting up of the Commission tn regard to these particular charges than they wanted to set off on a sort' of go as you please commission to inquire into anything and everything connected with the licensing laws. Sir Joseph said No, not for him; one thing had been agreed to. and that was the end to it.

Not a few people are asking— Where does Moss, the lawyer, come in over this Royal Commission and Ohinemuri inquiry business? Possibly he will declare his hand in time, though the attempt to call a few more cards from the deck does not look as if his present hand pleased him, or that he thought it a particularly strong one.

Deputations of Te Kuiti settlers recently waited on Mr. Jennings re local matters, mainly dealing with metalling of main road through the township, opening up of lands east of Te Kuiti, and the recent prosecutions for consumption of liquor. A strong feeling has arisen over the heavy fines imposed, particularly in the case connected with the Ohura Rifle Club, and other persons, who, it is alleged, did not sell liquor in the sense generally held as to what constituted sales. In reference to roads and opening up land the member stated he would

make representations to the Government, and in regard to heavy fines suggested a petition to the Minister for Justice.

In consequence of the petition to declare the Ohinemuri no-license poll void having been amended, a special sitt.ng of the Court will be held at Waihi on January 5, when an adjournment to the 25th will be asked for. Clauses 17, 22, and 24 are slightly altered, but no fresh grounds have been alleged.

“ I have had all sorts of advice in connection with the working of the Manawatu railway,” declared the general manager, Mr. T. Ronayne, at the railway smoke concert in Wellington recently, a remark that was received with laughter and cheers. One suggestion, he said, was that Paekakariki should be shifted several miles up the line, because a hotel happened to be adjoining the present station. He was not a temperance orator, and he believed in men enjoying themselves in a reasonable and temperate manner. He had sufficient confidence in the railway men as a whole to know they were not going to indulge too freely, even with the prospect of the Paekakariki hotel before them. Possibly there was some motive behind the suggestion, declared the speaker with a smile. The party who had made the suggestion might have had some land to sell in the vicinity of the proposed station. It had certainly been said that there was plenty of land there, and cheap, too. Mr Ronayne, however, did not press the soft impeachment He contented himself with saying that the present station would not be sh fted.

There are now 3 286 hotels in Victoria, or one to every 384 persons. In 18 85 there were 4265 hotels, or one to every 22 7 of the population.

'• The two religious denominations upon whom total abstinence is enforced are Mormonism and Mahommedanism ” (says a writer in the S.A. “ Register”). “To avoid the resulting immorality the founders of those religions instituted polygamy. But I shall go away from America to Australia, and refer Mr. Delahanty to Coghlan’s Statistical Handbook. In this he will find a peculiar fact—that the percentage of illegitimate children is greatest amongst those religious denominations which are most in favour of teetotalism; and if anything will ruin a nation it is immorality.”

During the recent Mississippi gubernatorial campaign, the Honourable Jeff Truly was one of the unsuccessful aspirants for the majority suffrage of his fellow citizens. Prohibition doctrines figured in the struggle, and seemed very important to the Methodist minister. “ Brother Truly,” said the Minister, “ I want to ask you a question. Do you ever take a drink of whisky? ” “ Befo’ I answer that,” responded the wary Brother Truly, “ I want to know whether it is an inquiry or an invitation.”

“ The percentage of drunkards is far smaller in wine drinking countries than in non wine drinking ones. The populations in wine countries have for centuries been educated to use and not to abuse the good wine. That the percentage of drunkards may be greater in France than in other wine drinking countries cannot be attributed to the use of wine, but to the abuse of artificial liqueurs, like absinthe, which is the alcoholic extract of the alkaloid in fennel root.”—” Broadminded,” in the S.A. “Register.”

Pliny tells us that' brewers’ yeast was used in Gaul and Spain many hundreds of years ago, as witness the following:—“ In Gaul and Spain, where they make a drink (beer) by steeping corn . . • they employ

the foam which thickens on the surface as a leaven; hence it is that the bread in those countries is lighter than that made elsewhere.”

Gin does not improve by being kept in cask or in bottle; in fact, it is apt to deteriorate if kept long in cask. Gin is a rectified spirit, and the impurities having been eliminated by rectification, there is no object in ageing it or in compulsory detention in bond. Holland’s gin is a cheap spirit compared with brandy or whisky, and, in the main, a poor man's drink. To keep it in bond in cask or in bottle would not only be as useless as in the case of English gin, but would considerably increase the cost to the consumer. Much of it is taken medicinally, and it has frequently been reported upon favourably by the medical journals. To put age restrictions upon it would be both useless and unfair to shipper and consumer.

Amended regulations regarding the use of letter-boxes at post offices are gazetted, and also new regulations regarding “ call-boxes.” These are boxes open to the postal officers only, and are placed within the post office, so that they are only available to the holder during the hours when the office is open to the public. These call-boxes are not intended to take the place of the letter-box, but are let to persons who regularly call for letters at the office, and for such persons they save the time of waiting while an officer looks for the mail matter, through perhaps, a considerable quantity. Letters and papers having been sorted into A.B.’s “ callbox ” can be delivered to him at once. The call-boxes have glass fronts, so that a holder can see whether there is any mail matter awaiting delivery to him. A second class of persons who may find a call-box of use are those who live within the range of a lettercarrier delivery, but desire to receive mails between deliveries. In this case the customer falls into the class first mentioned after the letter carrier has gone on his rounds, and may get his correspondence from the callbox, or leave it there till the next delivery takes it to his house or place of business. The call-box, of course, is a convenient receptacle for correspondence accumulating in the office during the holiday of the holder. The rent of the call-boxes is 2s 6d a year. In some American post offices the letter-boxes have glazed doors, so that' the holders can see if there is anything to take out their keys for.

over; but' if you have the temerity to order your favourite brew at such a restaurant as Hiller’s, in Unter den Linden, or Der Reichshoff, -n the Wilhelmsrrasse, you will come such a cropper as did the American who asked for plum-pudding at the Cafe Riche in Paris. “ Monsieur,” said the stately maitre d’hotel on that occasion, “ this cafe has never served, does not serve, and never will serve, plum-pudding! ”