TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1004, 3 June 1909, Page 20

TRADE TOPICS.

Rogers’ Club Hotel at Greytown North is one of the North Island houses recommended by the Commercial Travellers’ Association to its members. Mr. Percy Rogers, its proprietor, is an attentive and obliging host, and the up-to-date sample rooms, etc., afford every facility for business, while the house itself is one of the most comfortable “ on the road.”

On Saturday last the “Paragon” din-ing-rooms, Wellington, were raided by the police. About 100 bottles of beer, two gallons of whisky, and some gin were seized. Police prosecutions will follow.

Roderick McKenzie, licensee of the Excelsior Hotel, Dunedin, was last Monday fined £ 5 for supplying liquor to an intoxicated man. The license was not endorsed.

At Whangarei on Thursday three men, named Wm. Webster, Jack Edmonds and Duncan McKenzie, were charged at the Magistrate’s Court with selling liquor without a license at the Parako Maori races. Each defendant was fined £5. with costs.

It is understood that there is a possibility of an interesting development in regard to the recent local option poll in Bruce, and that, acting on legal advice, the publicans will proceed to lodge application for renewal of licenses in the usual way.

The Western Australia State Premier informed a local option deputation that Cabinet intended to carry ■ its promises in' regard to local option, but desired to deal equitably with both parties. Compensation would come from the trade, not from the community. He hoped the people would use their power with moderation.

At the Supreme Court at Wellington last week, John Thomas Driscoll, who had admitted stealing a portmanteau and contents, valued at £3 5s 6d, from the City Buffet Hotel, was admitted to probation for 12 months.

It is said that the Dunedin Licensing Committee will consider the question of whether bottle licenses are to be renewed.

Mr. F. T. Lipscombe, the licensee for the Lake Hotel, Takapuna, is applying to have the license removed to the house recently sold by Mr. Paul Hansen, the new hotel to be known by the name of “Mon Desir” Hotel.

At Invercargill last Saturday a man named Percy Nat King, with several aliases, pleaded guilty to the theft of £l4 from the bedroom of a fellowboarder at the Club Hotel, and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in Lyttelton Gaol. Accused arrived in Auckland from England four months ago, and is stated to have committed a series of thefts in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Invercargill. Jewellery and money articles were stolen- His method was to watch a favourable opportunity to enter rooms. Accused was also remanded to appear at Christchurch on a charge of stealing jewellery belonging to Mrs. Cowan, a boardinghousekeeper.

At Rotorua on Friday, before Mr. Dyer, S.M., A. S. Graham, of the Geyser House Hotel, was charged with Sunday trading, and exposing liquor -w sale on Sundays. On the first count a l ,fine of £lO and costs was inflicted, on the second a fine of £ 5 and costs was imposed. Sergeant Watts, of Rotorua, prosecuted, and Mr. A. R. Graham appeared for the licensee.

We understand that the Cornwall - Arms Hotel Thames, is to change

hands, Mr. Chas. Kasper having disposed of his interest to Mrs. W. Cullen, formerly of the Royal Hotel.

Messrs. Dwan Bros, report having sold Mr. George Searle’s interest in the Royal Hotel, Palmerston North, to Mr. George Foster, formerly proprietor of the Imperial Hotel, Auckland; the lease, furniture and goodwill of the Manawatu Hotel, Foxton, to Mr. Hadfield, late of Wellington; Mr. James F. Meagher’s interest in the Weraroa Hotel, Levin, to Mr. William H. Higgins, formerly proprietor of the Masterton Railway refreshment rooms; the lease, furniture, and goodwill of the Trafalgar Hotel, Nelson, to Mr. Walter H. Long, formerly in aerated water business in Wellington, Mrs. Keppler’s interest in the lease, and furniture of the Columbia Private Hotel, Lower Cuba street, Wellington, to Mr. John Browne (a new arrival from London, where he was connected with large catering business); also the lease of the Club Hotel, Carterton, to Mr. George Harden, late of Kilbirnie and Blenheim.

The finding of a partly emptied bottle of whisky near the Caledonian uavilion (says the “Oamaru Mail”) led to the fear that the owner of the bottle had been burnt! Inquiry as to the reason of the rumour brought t?>e all sufficient explanation: “Would i ny drinking man in Oamaru leave a half empty bottle unless he was

dead?” That he would not be likely to leave if he was dead did not occur to the agitated one, but the police reassured him. » * * *

The new Maryland Hotel, of 240

rooms, at St. Louis, furnishes yet another example of the thoroughness in appointments and conveniences which characterises the American hotel of the period. Every room has hot and cold running water, telephone, pictures, waste basket, glass water-pit-cher, lace curtains, laundry bag, pincushion, glass candlestick, radiator, and electric illumination. The washbowls are located in a corner of each room, with twin mirrors arranged at right angles over each. Alongside each washbowl is a package of shav-ing-paper, a razor-strop hook, and a metal towel-rack of new designs built in the form of rings. Nearly all the rooms have clothes closets, equipped with coat hangers and trouser and skirt hanger. Those rooms without closets have a wardrobe, which contains also a shoe drawer. * « * *

Henry Watterson, the famous editor of the Kentucky “ Courier-Journal,” wrote recently:—“There are doubtless many Republicans who are not Prohibitionists. But no man can be a Prohibitionist and remain a Democrat. In saying this the “ CourierJournal” seeks not to draw a line between extremes. The Democratic objection to prohibition is threefold: that it does not prohibit; that it begets evils of its own quite as bad as those it proposes to cure; and that it is an unwarranted intrusion upon the personality of the citizen. The Democratic alternative is local option. When a community does not want a saloon it can vote ‘ dry.’ When it does it will vote ‘ wet.’ The history of prohibition, wherever it has been tried, is the history of smuggling, hypocrisy, adulteration, extortion and Pharisaic politics. In Maine, God and morality means the spy system. In Georgia it means mongrelism and lawlessness. The ‘ Courier-Journal’ would save Kentucky from the conditions which prevail in those two States. It is oppossed to political hysteria set on by religious fervour. Heaven knows, we have enough of that sort of thing in e night-riders, whose schemes of destroying trusts by murder is no more reasonable than that of the clericals who think to destroy the drink demon ,iy drastic legislation. The red-nosed

« j gel, alike in the churches and in the parties,' is the genius of bigotry, of self-seeking cant and fraud, sacrificing the virtues and the graces of life

upon the altars of corruption and intolerance. He has proved a scourge to humankind, wherever he has appeared.” True for you, Henry. We know it in the southern hemisphere.

According to reports from Wichita, Kan., the latest whisky selling device found was a slot machine. It was confiscated by the police, and while it was originally made to turn out aluminium labels, it had been re-modeled so bottles of whisky could be shoved out from its interior. —“ Bonforts.”

How’s this for a puzzler for the nolicense advocates:—“ln the largest parish in England—that of Whittlesea— there was not a single case of drunkenness last year. This is a record for the parish, which comprises 26,000 acres. The population is 8,000, and there are fifty-eight licensed houses.”

What is estimated to be the biggest deal in whisky ever consumed was brought off by the Millwood Distilling Company, of Kentucky, recently. It involves 26,000 barrels, at an average of 46 gallons per barrel, equaling 1,196,000 gallons, and a sum of 750, 000 dollars; or, with duty of 1 dol. 10 cent, per gallon, nearly 2,000,000 dollars. The brands are E. L. Miles, 10,000 barrels, and Belle of Nelson, 16,000 barrels. Thomas W. Tinde, a big Chicago distributor, was the other party to this enormous deal.

Concerning Robert Browning’s appreciation of good wine, Mr. Cornyns Carr (in his recently published reminiscenses) remarks that it must have been hereditary, because his father once betrayed some indignation when in youthful days the poet asked for a glass of water. “Water, Robert!” exclaimed the parent in dismay. “For washing purposes it is, I believe, often employed, and for navigable canals I admit it to be indispensable; but for drinking purposes, Robert, God never intended it!”

One Mabee, who was a collector on commission for the American AntiSaloon League, and who was dismissed, now declares war on the “ temperance ” organisation. He asserts that “ money intended for the organisation never reaches it; that of £l, 000,000 collected from churches £600,000 has been spent in league salaries. He also asks that the League shall make a public accounting yearly of the money received and how it is spent. The League says that Mabee is employed by the liquor interests, and he has challenged them to prove it and he will forfeit £4OO. The outcome will be interesting.

“ Maoriland ” writes to Sydney “Fair Play”:—Met a lot of chaps at the N.Z V . boat on arrival from Wellington recently. “ Here,” chorussed the lot, “ can you tell us where Dan. O’Brien is? We heard he had a pub in Sydney.” Dan., who bought out the genial Joe Power, some time ago, was as well-known and as popular as Seddon himself in Maoriland, and when I took the lads to the Victoria in George Street they enjoyed a few drinks and a sight of Dan. He never knew of the incident, however. “ Oh, we don’t know him, but we wanted to see him; that’s all. We didn’t want to go back and say we hadn’t seen Dan. O’Brien. We would look such fools.”

The Chicago “ Hotel World ” tells us that the main restaurant of the renovated Hotel Baltimore, of Kanses City, has been copied after nothing in America or Europe; it is a creation of the Baltimore’s architect.” The main scheme is a succession of great white marble arches, rising to a central dome. The color scheme is red and white, the leather-covered chairs and the heavy hanging's at the. great windows being a rich red. A circular gallery at the height of the second floor overlooks this unique restaurant.