IN PERSONAL TOUCH.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1190, 30 January 1913, Page 22

IN PERSONAL TOUCH.

" Mr Harry Corson Clarke, who plays in “Get-Rich-Quick, Wallingford,” toured for three seasons as Jones in “What Happened to Jones,” and his success was so convincing that a play, “What Did Tomkins Do?” was specially written in order to afford' 0 the fullest scope for his sparkling humour.

Mr Tom Pollard is to coach the members of the Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society for “The Geisha.”

A characteristic story is told of Harry Lauder, the brilliant Scotch comedian, when he first visited New York. Harry was a bit anxious about his reception from the New York public, so- a friend offered to bet hiim ten pounds to a shilling that he would make good and become a favourite. Harry was aghast at the proposition. “Dinna talk to me o’ bettin’, mon. I’m stoppin’ at one o’ yer New York hotels, and the mon that does that has nae money—not even a shillin’ —to bet.”

Mi§s jljfellie Stewart is abroad enand Continental artists for her new Winter Garden in ..Sydney. Miss Stewart will be back in Sydney at the end of April. The new place of amusement in Darlinghurst, should be ready for opening in September under the joint management of Miss Stewart and Mr George Musgrove. It will be a Variety Theatre and restaurant.

«*♦ • ♦ Miss Vida Waters, a member of the Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society, has been offered an engagement with the Oscar Asche Company.

“ The Monk and the Woman ” at J the Adeiiphia Theatre has broken all records for the George Marlow, Ltd., management, even eclipsing the phenomenal business by “The Bad Girl of the Family.”

In Wellington Mr. Fred Nibilo achieved an extraordinary success in the title role of “Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.” One critic wrote: —“Fred Niblo, as Wallingford, with 40-horse power energy and verbal talent that would convince a tomato thqt it was a pumpliin, exercises his arts on the

townsfolk of Battlesburg with such a whirlwind speed and electric effect that they are quickly convinced that a covered carpet tack is the greatest thing on earth, and that its inventor is not even second to Edison.” * * * " “The Sunshine Girl,” anew musical comedy, is being presented in Sydney at present. Miss' Blanche Browne, ; of ? “Our' Miss Gibbs” fame, is the “girl.” 4r * 4c * Mr Allen Doone, the popular Irish actor-manager, is playing to good business in Sydney. “In Old Donegal” is on the boards at present, ’ succeeding “A Parish Priest.” 4- ' “No Mother to Guide Her” is the latest Marlow attraction at the Adelphi, Sydney. » ♦ * • Miss Grace Palotta is in the cast of “The Sunshine Girl” and scores heavily in a laughing song. * * * * . Stated that Mr Harry Roberts will make his next appearance with the Hamilton—Plimmer Company.

“Princess Caprice” and “The Dancing Mistress” are two new Loudon musical comedies secured by J.’ C. Williamson, Ltd.

Mr Auguste Van Biene, the ’cellist and actor, died on the stage at the Brighton Hippodrome at the conclusion of a dramatic sketch in which the musician played “Home, Sweet Home.” Mr Van Biene toured New Zealand some years ago. He was 63 years of age.

The theatres under the Fuller-Bren-nan proprietary extend from Perth to Auckland and Dunedin, and, people can be played for as long as twelve months with lost time only when travelling on land and sea. American, performers send printed and Press notices in shoals by every mail, but none are engaged except through their representative in San Francisco.

Mr. H. Sliortlander has taken over the Club Hotel, Pahiatua. He was formerly proprietor of the Imperial Hotel, New .Plymouth, the Inglewood and Railway Hotel, Inglewood, and also of one of the Wellington hotels.

Masterton has no beer and its water supply is now running short on account of the summer weather (says a wag), it is getting drier than ever.

A San Francisco cable states that Customs officers have been warned to inspect all coffins coming into the port. It is suspected that rum and other liquor is being illegally brought into the country in coffins.

Three large drapery firms in Sydney recently secured wine licenses for their refreshment rooms, situated on their own premises. The New South Wales Alliance has issued an appeal to its affiliated societies, to the Press, and public, asking them to protest against this new development-

The licensee of an Ararat hotel was charged at Melbourne with betting on licensed premises. He issued coupons to purchasers of drinks, guaranteeing to pay £1 to those placing correctly the first three horses in the Melbourne Cup. Six coupons were correctly marked, one customer filling in two. About fifteen hundred coupons bad been issued. The defence was that there had not been a betting transaction,: inasmuch as the defendant had nothing to gain and the coup on-hold erb nothing to lose. The case was dismissed.

In commenting upon the conditions governing the liquor traffic in the Nine- Country, Mr. Rawson, the new m a.sristrate at Te Kuiti, particularly asked that attention be drawn to the fact that the notification to the clerk of the court as to supplying liquor for entrance to King Country did not obviate the necessity of a label being distinctly attached to all parcels personally carried into the district.

At Cardiff, on November 16, the Guardians discussed this question, and by 2 8 votes to 27 “no beer” for the workhouse inmates with their Christmas dinner was agreed upon for the fifteenth year in succession. The Rev. F- T. Davies gave notice to rescind the vote at the next meeting. one member contended that as it was proposed to give the inmates a treat, the board should make it a real one and give them something they would really like.

“Prepared for the worst,” was apnarently the attitude of a wharf labourer, who was fined £25 at the Wellington Magistrate’s Court, on a charge of keeping a sly grog shop, and the worst soon came. His Worship (said. “You are fined £25.” Immediately the convicted one placed his hand in his pocket and drew out the money—one 10 pound note, two five pound notes, and five sovereigns. The offender then quickly took his departure.

“Any Maine lawyer will tell you that the Maine prohibitory law is the most terrible club that reform ever shook at rum. The Maine Legislature from time to time has given the radicals almost anything they asked for in the way of hew knobs for that club. That was -merely playing politics. Reformers have sharp tongues, and a man ticked as ‘a rummy’ .cannot get very far in Maine politics. Several supreme court judges of the State have told me that the' reformers have overreached by making the law too savage. Such laws, obnoxious to public sentiment, cannot be enforced.” —(Holman Day).

A scheme for dealing with casual “drunks,” which has been operating for many years in America and for five years in Victoria, has been introduced at the Sydney Central Police Court. The Rev. Mr. Hammond and a missioner converse with likely men in the Court yard, informing them that if they sign the pledge for not less than six months the magistrate will be informed, and probably will not convict them. The signatories are visited in their own homes the same week, and letters of encouragement are sent. The experience of Victoria shows that twenty-five per centum sign, whereof eighty per cent, keep the pledge or are unheard of again.

“When you take the saloon from the poor man you leave him empty of the resources of life’s social cheerfulness and pleasures. What now is he going to do with himself? All that you have done for' him is to make empty a place that before was • Nor yet have'you saved his soul.”—Rev. Harvey Clements, Rochester, N.Y. ■

Mr. A. Considine, who' hails from somewhere in the' Wairarapa, has been saying some strong things against prohibition. As a justice of the peace, he told a representative of the South Australian Register he had had ample opportunities of watching the movement, and considered it was far from being a success- In the prohibited districts people were constantly being brought before the court for sly grog-selling, and some of them were fined as much as £lOO. Still the evil continued. Prohibition was having the effect of producing a very inferior class of houses of accommodation for the travelling public. Business -had also fallen l off considerably in towns which had adopted prohibition, as travellers preferred to go to other places miles off where their comforts might be attended to. The system was impoverishing some and enriching others. People living in a prohibition town would drive a few miles to secure their supplies of liquor and take it home in bulk. Then again, the police had free access to licensed houses at all times of the day and night, but they had to have substantial evidence before they could enter a private house suspected of conducting a sly grog traffic.. Under the present system the drink evil was not reduced, and the morality of the towns suffered.

“TEETOTALLERS PAY NOTHING.”

“When the people of this country can afford to spend £16,000,000 annually on intoxicating drink, surely they should be able to extend the principle of old-age pensions.” This was the main theme of the argument submitted by Mr Finlayson in the House of Representatives in advocating an increase in the amount paid in pensions to those who did not possess homes, and who had to pay 6s a week out of their allowance of 10s for house rent. Mr West, member for East Sydney, however, _ did not agree with his colleague from Brisbane. “Why,” he said, “it’s the people who have a drink occasionally who pay the pensions, the teetotallers pay nothing. They are the meanest people in the world.” Members, however, were disinclined to enter into the question of social economics, and even Mr Finlayson, whose advocacy of temperance principles is well known, allowed the good name and fame of his teetotal friends to go undefended. —“ The Hotelkeeper,” Melbourne.