ECHOS FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1860, 7 June 1884, Page 3

ECHOS FROM THE CAFE.

The City Licensing Committees have been holding their apminl meetings this week, and h*«S} £i\]ten frdbtiAt fljeir determination Wcdroty ouVtnVbbjedts'for which; they-, wero joleotedT-ten o'clock closirig/ lite 1 Sbolibibii of upstairs bars,' and strict closing on Sundays. With'regard to tho'd.j«iiljf 'hpiffrtho vepmmjtteep, really have'tfot'gSt mitclr 1 power. " They may issue ten ( o'cJ,ock; -license^, and, compel thVhotelkee'pers W'cfose their houses >at that hour, but they cannot prevent •people obtaining liquor afterwards if they wish it. A man has only, to engage a bed, and the publican dare not, if he" would, refuse to supply him with what: ever he wishes to drink. In the matter of upstairs bars they are just about as poweiless. Of course, the bars will be abolished, but sitting-rooms will be provided instead, and the barmaids will carry the liquor from the downstairs bars to the sitting rooms. The regulation with regard to Sunday trading is likely to be tolerably well enforced* because the better class of hotelkeepers are averse to Sunday tiading, and those who allow it w ill lose their licenses, if the committees believe them guilty, whether the offence is proved or not. The committees, however, aie quite right to do all they can to oairy out the pi inciples on which they were elected. Whei c they have done wrong has been in threatening to withhold licenses from hotelkeepers, became they objected to the members of the committees inspecting their premises. The worst instance of this was in the case of the Maikct Hotel. Mrs Hacketr, the licensee, has conducted the house in an exemplary manner for fifteen years, but becau.se <-he objected to the committee inspecting the hotel, it having been already inspected by the police, the commissioneis threatened to withhold the license. If the present committees act with moderation they may do much good by enforcing necessary reforms, but if they beha\e in an aibitrary manner they will do harm, and causj a revulsion of public opinion. The celcbiatcd cases of the Waveiley and Nottingham Castle Hotels came befoie the City Eist Liccming Bench on Wednesday. The license of the latter vfai \oly pi opeily refused. A yeir ago w hen application was made to the pievious bench it was clefoirud for the purpose of enabling the propii'jter to elect a now house in a better locality. Instead of doing so he humbugged the bench, and got the matter put off from one quaitcily meeting to another until the then committee's term of office came to an end. Then the piesent committee was elected, ami the house was doomed. Now the doom has been scaled, and the license iefu«ed. With lcgaid to the Wavuilcy Hotel, the bench adlicicd to the opinion it has always expiessed, vi-c , that the license docs not exist, but it intimated an intention to noCedc to an application to transfer the license of the Exchange Hotel (which is in Quecusticet, just below T. and S. Morrin's) to the new building which has been elected for the W.iveily Hotel. Several applications weie adjourned, one of them being for the Quern's Head Hotel, at the foot of Upper Qucen-stieot, just belo'v what used to be (JeoigcStaines's " old curiosity shop." A new house has recently been built, and a new landlord has taken possession, but the bench announced its intention to lefuse the application on the ground of Sunday-trading. The consideration of the matter has been adjourned for a week, when evidence will be heaul in support and in contradiction of the offence. Until that evidence has been heard we can, of course, form no opinion as to whether the commissioners are justified in aniving at the decision to which they have come. - * The atrocious attempts to blow up \aiious buildups in London must have caused a gieat deal of consternation. It is <?icatly to bo hoped that the dynamite pai ty w ill not send any of their emissniies here, to deal out death and dcstiuction. We are none of us, as a vile, paiticnlarly anxiou-. to leave this woild for a bettei, and when we have to go we much piefer to die quietly in our beds by t ic hands of duly qualified medical piactitioneis, to being suddenly oent into eternity by a ch.uqu of dynamite. Then with legard to our buildings. Very few of them aie beautiful, but, were they all as u<;ly as the Salvation Aimy Banaeks, or as mean looking as the Fice Public Libiaiy, we do not want them to be blown up. We ha\e quite sufficient danger in their demolition when they aie burned down. By-the-byc, it is to be hoped that the \w etched shanty now used as a Fiee Public Libiary will not shaio the fate of so mnny old wooden building before its contents have been removed, as the destruction of the books would entail a severe mouctaiy loss, to saj nothing of the difficulty of replacing some, at least, of the works now there. I must say I shall be very glad when we have those books safely housed in a substantial building, which will not burn like match-wood if it should ever be set on fire, either by accident or malice afoiethought, as the present one would do. The w oik ought to pushed on apace, or the old shanty will lot away before the new building is commenced. ■t Our New Zealand Football Team are oariying all before them in New South Wales, and seem to be able to "go through" the " cornstalks" very easily. This is somewhat to be wondered at, seeing that our men, being selected from different pasts of the colony, had no opportunity of paying together until they met in Wellington ; w hereas, their opponents could easily play together, and, if they did not do so, they deserved the defeats they have sustained. I do not supiDOse that our men have played against as good teams as they will yet i meet, but so far they have carried all before them, and every match they play should imptove their chances, by giving them additional piactice in playing to gether. Whether the New Zealand team continues its success, or suffeis one or more defeats, it has already proved that it is a good team, and it is a sign of the dying-out ot interpiovincial jealousies when a number of footballers from various parts of the colony go together to do battle for the honour of New Zealand. Anything which has a tendency to do away with petty local jealousies is an undoubted advantage to the colony, and for that reason, if there were no other, we wish " our boys" every success. * # Talking of interprovincial jealousies reminds me of the opening of the session of our Parliament, which took place today, and I am afraid that there will be a very marked exhibition of that sort of thing in connection with the North Island Trunk Railway. Every one who has given any attention to the matter must see ' that the Western Route is the best, because it is the shortest, because it will open up the large tract of magnicountry between Waikato and Taranaki, and because it can be ' constructed for one million sterling, the largest amount likely to be available for the undertaking, and if our members will only have the sense to sink all party differences and work together for the common good, ! the ' Western route must be adopted! Surely Wellington has already been sufficiently aggrandised and benefittcd at the expense" of Auckland, 1 and it is full time that our members bestirred themselves 'to prevent her getting the benefit of the 'trade of the whole of Taranaki and well as Haw kes Bay. It is said that there ate engineering difficulties on the Western route which do not oicur on 1 the Central/ but'they 1 will add little to the cost of construction' compared with what the * additiorial length of the Central route would ,do. /.Then again there is the" question 'of coal. If t^ta Western route is adopted, the line can be supplied with each from £he va/i* >ou«i ' Waik&to trimes"" until fhtt?e ' 6'ri the ' route "itself "can/ 'be' |i/pf wherejtS it tlie'Ge'otfal roqte 1 ' werV decided 'unon,- it would

.makoian immense difference inline cost of working. * * * .t'lTfigl'Oa^hiflSga^BqiiQtisili Couwrfl does £somOunj)y iphjugs^ Afeits ii\ejpng on Monday last,it deeded to.leage the filaoA foVfcupplyiog- the' shipping kiW. ftfafrev , frthithrWi' five or seven years, and this in spite of>theJact e thatjn I .evew civilised pVoe IM«" .lsfou^«i^eßiWMtf '» tt keep the control of such matters in the hands 'of the local governing body. '" 'The' result 1 will be that, /if a tender is accepted, the successful tenderer will enjoy a monopoly during^the term of his contract. The next item on the progtamme was of an even more extraordinary nature. An application vwas made to the council to promise, hi the event of the applicant applying for art auctioneer's license aud paying the Collector of Customs the usual fee of £40, to refund £30 to the applicant. The council decided to accede to the request. If -these can be taken as proofs of the amount of wisdom displayed by the representative men of Onehunga, I think it i& not necessary to look further for reasons why the control of the Manukau Harbour should not be given to a local board They would manage it ov.en worse than the railway department does the Onehunpa whtirt. i ' St. Mungo.