TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 13

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

j TEA AND BUNS. ' A RETIRED BREWER'S REFLECTIONS. (From the Daily News.) j It was a long time since I had seen my ! friend, the Brewer, and when, 10 minutes 1 out of Euston, 1 ran across him in the dining car, we had muen to talk about co r ti eerning men and affairs in tho great . northern town from hicn we fcjorh Sprang, and vi hit her we weio now. returning. "Ah, l'\e few interests theie.'" he said, i "since I floated the Brewery." And he ; smiled complacently. | > "You floated it at the right tune," I • obsoned, tentatively. "The very nick of time. You remember old Tunstall, who used to run the Big Brewery. A friend of yours and mine once asked him why he - didn't float his businc-v«. 'Float it? Wh\ it hasn't begun to sink i yet.' Well, that was 20 years ago. Things I have changed." j "Do you think, then, that the fall in the drink bill is permanent?" ] "Of course it's permanent. It's only ' ■ just begun. You don't think the British I workman is going to be a fool always, do I job? He' 6 coming to his senses. I saw the 1 change ahead 15 years ago. That's why I got out in the boom time." " Leaving the shareholders in the cart " I " Well, if you like to put it that way," he fcai-d. with a placid smile, which spoke of a quiet conscience. " They wanted to ' come in ; I wanted to go out — voila tout ! It's a free country, you know." ! "What is the cause of it all?" " The cause of what? Oh, the drop in the drink bill. There are a hundred. You ' teetotalers haven't been haranguing- for 50 years for no.liing, you know." I "But the change has come so suddejily — in the last five years." J '" Just so. That's the way of things. You don't fow voiiv seed overnight and pick your fruit next morning. And education is only just beginning to tell its tale. I always regarded the Board Sohool you eet up as the enemy of my Brewery When people begin to read they begin to think. And when they begin to think it's a poor lookout for the publithou^c. They turn to tea and buns." He spoke perhaps a lit tie scornfully, but good naturcdly. He had sold out of hi 6 brewery, and could afford to speak without heat. " Tea and buns," he wont on. " Why. look at London. You can't turn round but a tea and bun siiop stares you in the~"face. Twenty \cars ago vcu could not find one. < Now you can't get out of their way. And they are all full. And the pubhchou c es that used to be fJll are emptying — emptying f.ist. I went down to the Crystal Palace t the other day. It was tea and buns all o\cr i the place. And it's the sanip e^ervv^hel•e. Years ago I used to go to a* bar at Piccadilly Circus. I wed f o think it wa« the | finest fortune of t,hs sort in London. .Always full — always tho most expenshe drinka — champagne, shilling whi-kies and sodas. I parsed the other day, and stood still in wonder— a tea and bun shop, upon my soul ! &nd full. I went in. and I said to tho waiter, 'Why. this used to be a drinking bar?' 'Yes,' he t-aid. 'but people seemed to want tea and buns, c o we save 'em tea and buns. If you want the bar you'll find it round the corner, down in the basement.' What do -sou think of that — too and buns on the top, and whiskies and sodas &hoved away down in the basement?" "I think it's very trcod news." " And co do I, though I'm not one of your c ort." "Put these are only effects. What are the causes''" "Well. I'\e told you two — you teetotalers and your Beard School teaeheis. But the v o are heaps more. Look at the electric trams. look at tho steamboats, Inok at the recreation grounds crowded every Saturday alt-ernoon. look at your public" parks and your public bands, look at the football matches, taking a million customers from the bar-parlour |ust when they've got the money. and the bar-parloar expects thorn." " T tell you the people are setting They are sooinc that there are better thin""- in life than fuddling And your municipal fellows aie putting them on the right line-- — oi\injr thrm iVtrap and luxurious tramcars anil steamboats that thov knmv are thoir own Wiv. a mnn can talcr- his wife and child for a blow down io Greenwich and back by tho tram for half tho pric 1 of an afternoon in tho rubhebonse. And ba\ - ing done it. Yip makes a diecovpr\ — sovoral disco\erip^. He's found ho r-an onjov h'mself with his wife and child: he's found that there's more eniovment in being sober on the river than fuddled in the street ; h«'s found he's in pocket, and that his coat has got a hole in it, and that hp'd l'ko to look as resDectable as other poonlo There's no stimulus like decent surroundings. G've ppoplo clean. hand=oino .ramcars, and they want to )ne un to them. " I'm told that the new steamboats take nearly' £3000 a week. Mark mv word, half of that is taken out of the drink bill. It's municipalism that is killing the miblichou'.e. Every nw w-tinp ground is a

blow at the pint ->ot. The other day I -=a\\ AUieiman White, of our old town. You know him — chairman of the Parks Committee. He was telling mo thi,t in the new Victoria Park there — you remember it — th"v'\e now sot four bowling <iircn= — crowded every night. It's raisjn<r the whole neighbourhood, he sajs. A weaver chap will come on tho ground some evemnsr — clogs on. greasy cap, muffl«r round his neck, finds he's welcome, same rights as everybody else — a regular democracy. He cr.mcs again ; ho conies every nic;ht. And he comes in a collar, and a decent cap and boots, and soon in his Sunday clothes. He's learning to live up to the bnv. linj; green, instead of down to the tap-ro^m. White told me he heard one of th<se chr.ps say to another on t,he green. 'Bill, T'\e been here every ni^ht for a we^k and I'vp only spent a shilling. And my «hot ne\er used to be less than st\ «hillinjr a week. There you are — five shillings in p^ckot — - five shillings for new clothes, new boots. knick-knacks for the house — a day a1 thn seaside with the nr'ssus. 'The Trade' is going down, but the trade of the count ry is going up.

"And th<Mi look at those P.S.A.'s. Thov toll me thai there are a thousand members cverv Sunilay afternoon at the JWthosda Chape!, near my old brewrv— and that fhnv have built up a club and reading room, ami hohdav funds, and sick funds. AH this in tho last fi\e years. And all. mind you, at the expense of the brewery round the corner.

" 4nd then take the music halls and p'aees of entertainment. Look at them today : vomomber what they wore. The council has purified thorn, and now wo actually ha\e a hnsf place, like the Coliseum, in London, which not onl\ hasn't crot a lirenso, but wouldn't liavo a license! Wouldn't have a license! Think of it!

"T'm ]ii-ar a looker-on, but T can *co tho world's clotting better, though "onie of yon who ar<> in the thick of the fiftht may doubt it. Tea. and hnrvs aro sien« of thp times.. They're the sian that Philip drunk is bcrominar Philip sober. I riinn't fool very fi iendlv towards you in the old days. \ftcr all a man oa.n nr>t hr»lr* n^m<? sro ei-n^c? nv his interests — at least tho avoracre man oan't. But I can see now that you aro risht and not only that yon arc ritrht. bui thai you are winning 1 . Shall we have a cun of tea?" "Yes — and a bun." lip lduohed.