KING BARLEYCORN.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 200, 23 April 1887, Page 5

KING BARLEYCORN.

Barleycorn is King evidently as regards the British Isles. Recently it was resolved to merge tho great Allsop brewery at Burton, Trent, into a limited liability company, and a subscription list was opened by the London and Westminster Banks for a total of £1,460,000. With the large premiums on the shares of the Guinness brewery in the recollection of investors, there was such a rush to secure shares that a heavy police force had to be called in to prevent a riot. So while good securities were being sacrificed on the Stock Exchange at almost any price, owing to the foreign financial panic, a hundred million sterling was subscribed in two short days, the returns on the ordinary shares being computed at about 4£ per cent per annum. Such being the case, what would the offering be likely to be for the goodwill of the London Alhambra Music Hall with its present capital of £57,000 ? From the statement of its affairs for the last six months of 1886 it appears that the net receipts were £15,383, or at the rate of 54 per cent, per annum. A music hall is allowed only to give ballets, songs, and acrobatic performances, and yet this establishment drew last year an attendance of upwards of 380,000 visitors. There are upward of 400 people employed, which comprises, in addition to the ballet, orchestra, and soloists, twenty-two dressers, forty-four stage assistants, twenty - seven property men, twenty-two barmaids, ten waiters, twentyseven staff and scenic artists, five moneytakers, nineteen check and door-keepers, thirteen gasmen, eight supers, eleven cleaners, six cellar-men and two firemen. The secret of the success is owing to the small price of admission— 1 shilling— the variety and excellence of the programme, and the dazzling effects of the ballet, with a huge promenade, the attractions of which are heightened by the presence of some 50 of the prettiest barmaids of the great metropolis. There are also cozy private boxes furnished with lace curtains, and it is a well-known fact that some of the ladies of the highest aristocracy now and then insist on taking in the Alhambra on their return homeward from the Italian opera, and a great many are of the opinion that between the two amusemets the fiat is in favour of tho music hall. ;