A DRUNKEN DEN.

NZ Truth, Issue 138, 8 February 1908, Page 5

A DRUNKEN DEN.

THE WELLINGTON WORKING MEN'S CLUB. A Balance-Sheet That Looks Bogus. A BEERY RESORT OF BUMMERS AND CAD6ERS. What Becomes of all the Profits?

This paper cannot be accused of being hypocritical on the drink question, Tf the Law. ordains that the rich man is to have his wines and his cigars, there is no valid reason why the worker should not have his beer and his bacca. If wine gets the rich, man down, if it reduces him from plenty to penury, if it drags him from his mansion to the Charitable Aid Board, then it is, after all, the old. old story, a story that will be told till Gabriel toots his horn, and perhaps after. If the rich man wants wine he pays for it. _t is a luxury that he can afford. Ths worker cannot stand wine, he takes; beer, and incidentally makes millionaires of brewers , and if he inpovcrishes himself and his family through j a penchant for the amber-colored purge, the rest of the world has little .sympathy with him, and the ■*■•'■ working man ■■-. shoiildv : . therefore, be -' moderate m the use of beer. He is a free agent i-n the matter, and to rob him of his beer might le-d to A BLOODY AND BEERLESS ' . REVOLUTION. 'And again beer to manyv aman is . -.what tea is to an old maid. The rich man gets bis wine, his spirits, and bis cigars at his club. There m dolce iar niente, he whiles away hours. Everything for him is luxuriant, and '■, it is, for him because he pays fo"r it, <•. and. none' can say him nay. Thcrcforewhat is wrong with a club for the worker, where of an evening he cen read and smoke, yes, and drink. In years . agone aii 'this was threshed out and the result is that, m WeUinc-ton.-.we have the- Working Men's Club, and about this self-same Club "Ti'uth"is going, to have a few words to sa- and those words ar* not to be ot a complimentary nature. Not to be sickly sentimental or maudlin m its manner, it might not j be ; out pt place, if, at the ouset, this J paner observes that many wives m Wellington daily (and nightly) curse the self-same club or nub, on the - same grounds that "Truth" declares it to be nothing short of a dirt^. ; low-^own, drinking den, where working men are fleeced,; where h.a.r-l»?,f^rs and bummers and sponeers arc en-cotirci-eed, and which, were jt a licensed ' house, would long ago ha«e received police 'attention, and rrobablv would have been closed up. A*i it : is! this'" den, ostensibly . a club, m ; refclftv a >hVpoo shanty, is su^h that * ' its charter should be revoked p?nd its ' affair^ placed m (the hands ol tho Public Trustee for administrvtion. ' Now.' wete this paper inclined,- it ' could covff half a pa-gi* cono^rninp: tho drink ' : "" l '\' .; IN THIS BOOZY CLUB, but just at present it wishes to . ' direct its attention to things as they stand to-day. .How things are, Pto- \ pefiy. speauing, nobody seems to ..".'-' khowy.what, is more, pobody seems C- to care, -'and 'tbtis- general discard- • .V" 'for every -Jbtotofi is not at all unlikely ,- to make for the closing up of this gloriiied grog-shop, sanctified witn .....' the name of, the Working Men's Club. "In the past the peirsons who .have had anything at all to. do. with the- manr ..■■■■ agement of the beery joint have so , successfully muddled things up, that ;. nobody can honestly stand forward and as honestly declare that the club has been, or is being, conducted on any thing like honest or even decent , lines. ~ Nobody knows or cares what becomes of the enormous profits accruing from the sale of grog m this • beer guz_Hng shanty. Nobody cared anything or says anything if anybody connected with the joint gets their load on, and there are probably not five 'per cent, of the ,1200 present members who know-, let alone care, why there have been so many managerial' change,?, what embezzlements of the club's cash there have been, what wholesale robtoerv of gifog. and other • goods have periodically taken place, and what is still more a_tound__g, • though such thefts could have been • proved, though one, perhaps more, embezzlement, couid have been driven home, there have been no prcsecu- .» tions and ho reasons given, and m the latest "private statement of account's," a secretary's pecad-ilces _ro successfully covered over by -the mention m the assets of this significant statement,. "Claim on Ocean Accilcivt Corporation, £lbs 10s 4d." "Truth" -wishes to hientiori that it has ia its possession a copy of the 60th H-alf-f early Balance Sheet and Report of the- Wellington Working Men's Club^ and. breathe it gently, "Literary Institution (?):" This precious do-, cument, we hasten to mention, is marked "private,", notwithstanding which this journal intend- wiving it the widest publicity, because it is essentiailv necessary m the intercists of the public, if not members of this club, that the attention ot the proper authorities should be focussed on what noVonfc can dispute is the . MOST DRtINKEN DEN m this city. Moreover, this balance sheet is unaudited, and there is reason to believe that the statements ol finance,, etc*, are so scandalously inaccurate, so crooked, if not actually faked, that the auditors have refused ,to sign it, Notwithstanding, this sheet, a "bogus balance-sheet m the circumstances, is presented to mem- .. hers, and because marked "private" it is hoped that that will be the end ' of it. This statement of accounts is unsigned, no authority is . given for , the expenditure, etc., etc., and the " fools who belong td the club have seemingly allowed themselves to be hood-winkod. What care anybody for anything, particularly when one reads m Tommy CarmichacPs Presidential Message, that "The refreshments and luncheons dispensed have £iv_n general satisfaction, and the beer supplied has been kept up to a very hi-h standard of quality." No- .! thing troubles anybody but beer, and ON THE SUBJECT OF BEER let us deal. One finds that the bar receipts for six months ending December 31, 1&07, were no less a sum than ViESI 18 12s Id, and the refreshment tickets, which represents beer, % amounted to £112 Is Id, the sale of empties totalled £_0 12s 9d. Now, that is ail on the liquid side. Let's gee 'about the Literary Institute.

; Library deposits for that half-year amounted to £9 10s. It is the silliest kind of balance-sheet that has ever been printed, and we doubt . if there is an expert accountant m Wellington who could thoroughly unravel it. We find an item of allowance to Servants £79, which is altogether foreign to Wages, and Salaries £1025 17s lOd. There is an item of, luncheons £161 ss, which members ought to khow all about, and we find that though the bar receipts amounted to £5000 odd, notwithstanding, the Billiard Table receipts, m face of the i •. VARIOUS SOURCES OF REVENUE, . the profits arising for six months ar mount to £872 9s 4d. Now,- this paper is not so much concerned with these figures. They're crooked, otherwise the auditors would have passed them. Who is it connected with the Club that is getting his load on ? What on earth else can be expected when we are tcld that at the meeting the other night drunkenness pervaded the whole proceedings. Everybody more or lees were aimed wixh beer pots, and the hoer spo_e eloquently. This religious organ denounces this club as a boozing de-n. It exists for beer, and tho working man is being exploited as per usual. Scenes of drunkenness and - disorder are by no means uncommon at this place ; m fact, it is a disgrace to the city. If such a club cannot be cond"cted on decent lines, then let it be promptly suppressed. This is by no means the last word to be said on this miserable matter. The library should be the finest m this pity, but it is not. If it is a literary institute, and not a beer-soaking establishment, some of the profits should go towards the upkeep of the institute. Many are one on this point, but they are m a hopeless .minority. Some of the profits are to be utilised on a great and glorious drunk, which goes by the name of a picnic. Now, this paper has not by any means wasted any of its powder on this dirty boozing den. It expects to have a lot more, to say on other things connected with the management. It has simply pointed out m aSnild manner WHAT A GLORIOUS OPPORTUNITY Wis ioint presents to the workingman to fill himself up. with beer. It simply points t,o the bar receipts as proof positive of the den that it is.