Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1900. The Licensing Question.
According to the report of the deputation representing the New Zealand Alliance, which waited on the Premier the other day, the Licensing question will occupy some of the time of parliament this session, and ' many alterations will be made in the Act, some of much advantage. In regard to licenses in districts where the population has suddenly increased the Premier thinks the i people within a given radius should be allowed to decide whether a hotel should be established. He intimated that he considered the law defective where it permitted a license to be dropped in a district and one granted at a distance, and he declared that sort of thing must be stopped. This will be good news to many of our readers, who stand a chance of being able to appreciate the suggested alteration. We congratulate the Premier on his thorough grasp of the licensing question, shown in his remarks on the way the property penalties have worked. " One result of property penalties," said the Premier, "had been that hotelkeepers had been placed in a most unfortunate position. In some districts there was practically a month-to-month tenancy for hotels. Unless a licensee had an interest in the pre-
mise 3, unless he had something to lose, the penal clauses were really void and of no service. The penalising of property had brought about a most disastrous condition of affairs, because in some cases it meant that the hotelkeeper was only in a house, not even from mouth-to-month, but from day-to-day." We all have been cognisant of the position set out and any change must be for the better. How tbe Premier is going to succeed in removing what he terms "an injury" by reducing the rents now charged for hotels it will be hard to forecast, but that hotel rents are out of all fair proportion to value of property is a fact, and the hotelkeer/ers have often all they can do to pay rents and goodwills and to conduct their houses within the law. If the government can effect these improvements in the law the position of the hotelkeepers will be better and then the law will have to be strictly enforced for any breach, and a far better condition of affairs will have been reached. In talking over licensing matters some time ago with an hotelkeeper the question of Sunday trading cropped up, and the hotelkeeper declared that he would like the police to be directed to enter every bar on Saturday nights and lock it up and seal it until the following Monday morning, then the public would fully understand the uselessness of applying for a drink, and each hotelkeeper could rest easy under the assurance that the other hotelkeepers could not either supply drinks. The most conscientious hotelkeeper is often worried into a breach of the law by the knowledge that some other licensed person is breaking it, and he would lose custom dio: he not act similarly. Put the hotelkeepers in a better position and better men will enter the trade, and those who are in it will be able to afford to abide by the law. It is quite true what the Rev. J. Patterson is reported to have said, " the idea of doing away entirely with drink is a high idea. It would be a grand thing if it could be carried out, but I do not think that it will be done for a long time to come. By providing checks and keeping the traffic within certain bounds, much can, however, be doao for the welfare of the community," and thus an improvement in our present licensing laws should be of much advantage to us all.
For the British naval manoeuvres about to be held, ng warships have been mobilised. Miss Homely ; Do you think I ought to permit Jack to kiss me before we are married? — Miss Beauty: Yes, unless you prefer never to be kissed. Mr William Jupp in another column thanks the hempmillers for the expression of sympathy with him at a meeting yesterday. He trusts by strict attention to business to still give them satisfaction. A replace advertisement in another column directs attention to the progress of the stocktaking and century sale at the Bon Marche, Palmerston N. Every department throughout this establishment offers special inducements to buyers for present month previous to stocktaking. The attention of the government might be drawn to the strong conservatism encouraged in the Cook Islands. The Land Act has a clause in which it is stated " the rights of the people who have occupied the soil of this island for twenty geuerations must be preserved." This is apparently no place for N.Z. Liberals. Last year £227,681 was deposited in the Post Office Savings Bank in excess of the amounts withdrawn. There were 183,046 accounts remaining open at the end of the year with the average credit of each account of £29 is 4d. A visitor to Taihape reports that between that place and Mangaweka pigeons are very numerous this season. Driven down in flocks by the snow on the Ruahine ranges, they may be seen in dozens flying about amongst the trees and sunning themselves on the bare boughs of the dead totaras. The settlers have not seen so many pigeons in the Taihape valleys for many years. — H.B. Herald. The N.S. Wales stock returns show that the number of horses in the colony at the end of last year was 449,000 — a small decrease. About 10,000 were exported to South Africa and India. Of cattle there were 1,802,---000, a decrease of 84,000, ; and of sheep 36,213.000, a decrease of 5,037,---000 as compared with the previous year. The decrease was chiefly the result of drought. The lambing average was 49 per cent. An unusual sight wa9 witnessed in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon in the shape of a metor, so brilliant that it was visible in broad daylight. It was seen in the south about 3.30 p.m., tailing almost vertically, or at an angle of about 75deg. An eye witness who was passing Crammer square at the time, says that it looked like a bird of brilliant plumage, swooping suddenly to the earth, and glancing in the sun. — Truth. John Jackson, a publican, of Brockmoor, near Brierley Hill, England died under sensational circumstances. The inmates of the house were startled by a terrific explosion, the windows in a bed-room being blown into the street. Upon the room being entered Jackson was found lying on the floor, the head and chest being shattered by an explosion. Examination by the police showed that guncotton had caused the explosions, and it is believed that deceased placed the material inside his shirt and exploded it. Mr W. H. Judkins, well known in the Wellington district a 9 late Secretary to the New Zealand Alliance, has started business in Masterton as an auctioneer.
Rather extraordinary. There were an extraordinary number of cases of drunkenness at the Auckland Police Court on Wednesday. The police stated that drunkenness had considerably increased since ten o'clock closing began. • Ashanti 13 one continuous forest, with small clearings, where native villages have been built. Servant ; Please, mam, there is an old man at the door with wooden legs ! — Mistress : Toil him we don't want any ! Impudence. — Tramp (to New Woman) : ' Aye yer got a pair o' Jeftoff bloomers ter gimme, hdy ? I'm goin' on a walkin' tour, an' bloomers 'ud just suit me figger ! A parliamentary return gives the total amount of money secured by mortgage under the Land Transfer Act on the 31st March last as £35,---303,727 17s. By an inset with this issue Messrs C. M. Ross and Co., of the Bon Marche, Palmerston North, announce the second week of their stocktaking and century sale. The entire stock is offered at reduced rates in order to reduce stock £3,000 previous to stocktaking, and unqualified bargains are offered in every department. The sale continues throughout the month of July. In the Cook Islands the natives have passed a Marriage and Divorce Act, and one clause might with advantage be copied by this colony, viz., that no woman shall be legally capable of entering into the bonds of matrimony unless she shall have obtained (? attained) the age of fifteen years. Mr Ward informed Mr Field that so far the owners of the WellingtonManawatu railway had never spoken to the Government about the purchase of the line. Outside representations had been made by the owners ot the line it would not be proper for the Goverment to interfere with a private line. They should 'fix a price for the line and tell the Government what they want. The matter, he added, was a colonial one, but the first move should be made by the proprietors, of the railway itself. Mr Soak : But, my dear, I tell you a drink now and again makes me an utterly different man. — His Wife (sweetly) : Oh, well, in that case I can hardly blame you. It hardly seems two years since we recorded the death of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, yet the second anniversary passed on May 19th, and it was marked at Home by the unveiling of.the statue of the great statesman, which had been erected in J:he central hall of the Houses of Parliament at the expense of the Liberal Memorial Fund, presided over by Lord Tweedmouth. The statue 1 measures Bft in height, and has been cut from a flawless block of carrara marble by the sculptor Mr F. W. Pomeroy, who has represented the dead politician in a striking and characteristic attitude. The right hand rests on a pedestal, over which is thrown the robe of the Exchequer, while in the left a roll of manuscript is held tightly, the pose and expression being intended to suggest the late Liberty chief emphasising a point in an oration. The New Zealand Illustrated Magazine for this month is an interesting number. The paper on pioneer Wellington is very good and helps the later coiners to realise the immense strides in the progress of the capital. This magazine is useful as being the means whereby is recorded the pioneer and Maori history of the colony. We are always glad to see accounts of the old days of the Native race. Tangitoru Daniela, a chief of the Cook Islands, in a letter to the British Resident writes: — "This is a letter to Lord Ranfurly. Greetings. Great was my delight when I listened to the words that flowed from your mouth. I was rejoiced to hear those words. You have also visited the Cook Islands and have seen with your own eyes the ancestors of the New Zealand Maoris. This fact will ever be remembered by me, and your words will not fade, but remain as gold imperishable." His deiight prompted him to present fiv •■• acres of land to the Queen. Early this morning an o] ] man named Steehr died at the Maori pah Motuiti aged 85 years. In another column Mr Robert Fraser, well-known as the gentleman who brought the s.s. Himatangi out from Home, notifies the establishment of the Manawatu River Company of which he is the. managing director. The company is now open to carry freight between Foxton, Shannon, Kereru and Levin and the business people of the three latter places would secure a great reduction in cost of carriage by inquiring into the company's terms.
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Manawatu Herald, 14 July 1900, Page 2
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1,912Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1900. The Licensing Question. Manawatu Herald, 14 July 1900, Page 2
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