TRADE TOPICS

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVIII, Issue 1052, 5 May 1910, Page 20

TRADE TOPICS

Mr. D. P. Barrett, for ten years proprietor of the Manchester Hotel, Feilding, lias taken over the Trafalgar Hotel, Nelson- Mr. Barrett was at one time proprietor of the Albert Hotel, Wellington. We trust he may find the change beneficial from every stand point-

Auckland’s beer duty for April totalled £2,238 Os 9d, as compared with £2,192 10s for April of last year, being an increase of £45 10s 9d-

A cable message states that the slander action which Mr. John Foster Fraser brought against Mr. Ramsay MacDonald during election week has been abandoned, Mr. MacDonald having withdrawn the statement, on which the action was founded, that Mr. Fisher, who was one of his opponents, had bribed the electors with free beer.

Drinking in trains has received a great deal of censure recently from Bench, Pulpit and Press, but probably (says the Southland News) the case that will cause most indignation occurred on Monday, when the immigrant boys were being brought from the Bluff to Invercargill. The lads were chatting away in their carriage, when a number of labourers —some of them the worse for liquor pushed into the carriage and usurped all the spare space. The train had been in motion only five minutes when whisky was passed round, and actually offered to the lads, the oldest of whom was only twenty-one. They stoutly refused, and their refusal was greeted with ribald laughter and insulting references to “Lunnon.” Such was the first indication of New Zealand that the lads received, and they had been informed that between Bluff and Invercargill there was '‘prohibition!”

Mr. T. Hilton, of the Paekakariki Hotel, Paekakariki, has an announcement in our advertising columns. This hotel, which has been recently rebuilt, is a favourite seaside resort, 27 miles from Wellington, and is comfortably furnished throughout. All trains to and from Wellington stop ample time for passengers to obtain refreshments. Paekakariki is a favourite run for Wellington motorists, and the view from the top of the mountain is unsurpassed in the Dominion.

At Naseby, last week, Mr. Porritt, S.M.. and a jury of six, inquired into the circumstances of a fire which recently mysteriously broke out and destroyed a portion of the Victoria Hotel, at Naseby. When the fire was extinguished, the fire brigade superintendent and local constable found a quantity of rags, liberally soaked with kerosene, sticking in the lining boards of the room in which the outbreak occurred. Inquiries by detectives have proved nothing as to the origin of the fire. The licensee, W- B. Allan, proved that he was in a satisfactory financial condition; that his business

was paying; that portion of his personal property was uninsured; and that he had not been near the room in question for two days before the fire- The jury brought in a verdict that the place had been wilfully set on fire, but there was insufficient evidence to show by whom.

Our readers will be interested to learn that Mr. R. W. V. Allen, late of the Royal Oak, Wellington, was married on the 23rd April to Miss Margaret M. Dunne, for some years at the Club, Wellington. Mr. Allen has secured a three years’ lease of the Princess Theatre, that old-established and popular house in Tory-street.

The beer duty collected in Wellington during April amounted to £1,075 11s lid, as against £1,262 15s 6d .for the corresponding month last year.

Mr. G. W. Moorhouse, proprietor of the Manakau Hotel, Manakau, which is situated on the railway line between Otaki and Levin, is well known to the travelling public. First-class accommodation can be obtained at this wellknown hostelry, and visitors and others calling at Manakau can be sure of receiving the best attention at the hands of Host Moorhouse.

The most centrally-situated hotel in the Coast capital is undoubtedly the Empire, owned and managed by Mr. James Bevine, the popular boniface who hailed from Denniston. The hotel stands on the corner of Mackay and Tainui streets, being on the direct line of traffic, and an equal distance from the G.P.0., railway station, municipal buildings and the wharf. The house has recently been renovated, its sanitary arrangements perfected, and refurnished with modern furniture, and there is an air of comfort and superiority about its interior that speaks “ peace” to the weary traveller, and a good table and the best of viands, as Mr. Bevine, who, by the way, is ably seconded by his better half in the management of the hotel, has a “ free house,” which means so much to those who know the difference between “ tied” and “ free.” Taken altogether, the Empire is a house that can be recommended to the travelling public, and especially to those who love comfort and cleanliness before elegance.

It is stated that Mr- A- W. Edwards of Te Aroha, has made arrangements for the taking over of the Ellerslie Hotel, at an early date.

H. G- Jackson, of Bowentown, paid dearly for a breach of the law on Tuesday, being charged with, on or about April 7, 1910, at Waihi, selling 10 gallons of ale to Walter Tatham, and, on or about March 29, at Waihi, receiving an order for liquor from C. Muller, in the no-license district of Waihi. Mr. Woodward appeared for the defendant, and pleaded guilty to the second charge under extenuating circumstances, and not guilty on the first count. After evidence had been heard, the magistrate said he had no doubt there had been a sale, and was of the opinion that the defendant had brought the liquor into the district on the offchance of getting a customer. On the charge of selling defendant was convicted and fined £4O and costs, and on the second charge was fined £lO and costs, the latter amounting in all to £6 12s.

At the Waihi Police Court, on Tuesday, Sarah A. Vallemaere, of Thames, was charged with a breach of the Licensing Act in selling liquor to Mrs. J. Norton, of Waihi, without having notified the clerk of the Court. Mr. Mueller, who appeared for the defendant, pleaded not guilty. Counsel said the defence was based on the provisions of subsection F, of section 147, of the Licensing Act, to the effect that nothing therein prevented any person residing in a no-license district from bringing into that district one quart of spirits or one gallon of beer in any one day, neither was the vendor required to enter, the sale or notify it. Mrs. Norton bought and paid for the liquor. At her request it was taken to the railway station, and came on to Waihi with her in the same train. After . hearing the evidence, His Worship (Mr. F- J. Burgess, S.M-) said it was evident that the breach was of a technical character, the mistake having been in consigning the liquor, instead of leaving it at the station for Mrs. Norton. A conviction was recorded and defendant was mulcted in costs, 9s.

The Kaiser is a many-sided man. For instance, His Majesty has just received a very comfortable cheque, representing dividends on stock held by him in a Hanover brewery. This

is only one of the many enterprises in which the Kaiser takes an active and profitable interest. His pottery works are famous and he takes the same personal, active interest in them that any successful business man would. The Emperor trades openly under his own name, and frequently takes orders for his products in person. It •will be remembered that our own King Edward VII. is both a brewer and a distiller.

Mr. Charles Low, general secretary of the N.S.W. U.L.V.A., has .{says “Fair Play”), received the following from Mr. J. B. Keogh, secretary of the U.L.V.A. of South Australia, from which is extracted the following: — “The result of the local option vote in this State was a complete staggerer for our opponents, who were confident of winning in a large number of electorates. I am pleased to state hotelkeepers worked excellently throughout the State by forming local committees and working zealously to get public sympathy. I have also to announce that these committees generously supplied their own special funds, relying mainly upon the association for guidance for , conducting the campaign, and I certainly had a busy time with telephone and correspondence for three months prior to the elections. We sincerely trust our great victory will stimulate the trade in New South Wales to putforth a united effort to secure a like result on your own polling day.”

“I anl reminded that I am here in Milwaukee. Someone says, ‘Aren’t you a prohibitionist?’ Seriously, ladies and gentlemen, with my best will and my earnest efforts, I have found the leaders of the prohibition, move'mjent /temperamentally so narrow that they would not take me in. That is the one fault I have found with it. The trouble with prohibition and its policy is that its creed is so variable that a man seldom knows just where he stands, if he is to be a prohibitionist. What does this mean? Absolute prohibition of the manufacture of liquor? You take away then from science and from the medical profession and from the several other classes of very useful people a quite needed commodity, so that I could not in justice to the human race advocate the absolute prohibition of the manufacture of liquor. If it may be manufactured, it surely may be used in trade; otherwise it could not be of use.” —Right Rev. J. J- Keane, Roman Catholic Bishop of Wyoming, lecturing at the Milwaukee Auditorium, October 5, 1909.