The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-08 00:00:00

.DININGI HALLS.

- - a

A meeting which took place on Thursday evening, under
the presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury, will give a
great impetus in the metropolis to the movement which
has for its object the establishment of places of refresh-
ment for the working classes with all the advantages and
none of the evils incidental to public-houses. For some
years past, in various parts of the country, a trial of such
places has been made, and wonderful unanimity
prevails as to the success of the experiments. In
Shrewsbury, for-example, a building was erected at a cost
of £4,000, containing dining, recreation, and reading-
rooms. An additional sum of 2200 was spent in en-
larging the premises, which was recouped in the course of
two years and a half from the profits of the undertaking.
No less a number than 2,000 meals, of an unexceptional
kind, are provided at a reasonable rate each week, and so
eagerly do the workpeople in the town, as well as the agri-
culturists who visit it on market day, avail themselves
of the advantages thus offered, that arrangements are
about to be made to increase the size of the building. In
the course of five years 1,000 persons using the refresh-
ment-room have entered their names in a temperance
pledge-book kept on the premis es. A kindred institution
is that known as the Westminster Club. It differs, how-
ever, in this respect, that none but members who pay :1(-1.
per week can participate in its benefits. The present
number of members is 27,478, and the library contains
between 200 and 300 volumes. At Aldershot a club-house
was erected in 1863, involving an outlay of £6,000.
Within the walls of the building are coffee, smoking, and
reading-rooms, and a lecture-hall capable of seating
700 persons. The little town of Market Lavington, with
a population of 1,500, is in happy possession of one of the
most successful of these working men's clubs. The struc-
ture in which its operations are carried on is admirably
planned, containing within its area a coffee-room--which,
the report of last year states, was so well patronised that
it would not have been too large if it had been three times
its present size—lecture, smoking, reading, and recreation-
rooms. Every department of the institution pays its own
way. At Tunbridge Wells the refreshment department was
originally in the hands of a committee, but at the end of four
years it was made over to a manager, who can now boast
that the receipts for the provisions supplied have risen
from £6OO to £1,200 per annum. The Eastbourne Institu-
tion, which at the outset cost £3,000, and has lately been
much enlarged, is in advance of most of the others in this
respect -that it has dormitories attached to it. Shaftes-
bury Hall, Princes-road, Notting-hill, London, has been
opened about two years, its promoters being anxious
to give to the working classes a public-house,
minus intoxicating drinks. They have, therefore,
so arranged it that, in addition to the bar, where artisans
can obtain all they may require in the way of refreshment,
they can carry on the various organisations which are
inseparably connected with their position and pursuits.
Thus loan societies, • benefit societies, and discussion
classes are all held on the premises, being managed by the
working men themselves. Lectures and entertainments
are also provided, and opportunities afforded for moral
and religious instruction. When first the public-house
was opened, the supply of refreshments was limited to tea
and coffee, but at the present time anything that is
requisite for the working man in the way of food,
and drinks not intoxicating, may be obtained between
five in the morning and eleven at night. The
catering department is under the direction of an
efficient manager, who undertakes it on his own
responsibility, paying a certain weekly sum for
the premises. About £22 per week are received
from the sale of refreshments. It was at Shaftes•
bury llall that the meeting on Thursday took pace, and
the proceedings were rendered specially interesting
by the presence and speech Of Mr. Corbett, whose efforts
in Glasgow in providing cheap refreshment-rooms have
acquired wide and deserved reputation. Mr. Coe.-
belt stated that he was led to engage in the
enterprise from the conviction that, except in
places where they were exposed to the temptations 1
incidental to drink, there were no convenient and com-
fortable houses of resort where the working classes could
obtain cheap and wholesome food. Looking carefully at
the question of provisions, he came to the conclusion that
the real cost of a cup of tea, a bowl of soup,
or an egg was about id. each, and thereupon determined
to establish the principle of penny rations. Having
taken a suitable hall in Glasgow, he fitted it up in a way
that would render it attractive. No sooner was the hall
thrown open than it was found that the public would
eagerly avail themselves of the advantages which it
offered, and, in the course of a very short ex-
perience, it proved to be entirely self-supporting, He was
desirous that it should be understood that while lie had gone
into the matter from philanthropic motives, he determined
to carry it out upon strictly self-shpporting principles.
He Lad looked at it from first to last in a commercial
light. When the working men and others entered the rooms
for refreshment, they did not feel that they were the sub-
jects of pat ronage, but were perfectly independent. The first
hall he had opened having proved so successful the plan
was extended, and at the present time there were
twenty-five of these places in full working order in the
city of Glasgow. What he had done was this. Taking a
map of the city he had fixed upon the spots where he
thought such establishments were most required, and then
lie had opened them, and the result had been that a
gross profit of £lO,OOO or LILCO° had been obtained.
The expo nses of the refreshment halls were about
£B,OOO, which gave a net profit of about £2,000
per annum, a profit as net as any obtained from
any of the business transactions in which commer-
cial men were engaged. As to the provisions supplied at
the refreshment-rooms, they were of the best quality,
though they were simply cooked. This latter plan was
adopted, as it was thought that if the food was disguised
by the artifices of cookery it might be regarded with a
suspicious eye by the working classes. From a paper
containing some statistics, he found that 44,800 bowls of
porridge, 58,352 cups of coffee, 75,000 cups of tea, 21,594
slices of bread and butter, 27,600 eggs, 148,016 plates
of beef, 225,344 plates of potatoes, 99,344 basins of soup,
and 135,000 plum puddings were consumed in the course
of a month. The reasons why halls such as he had esta-
blished in Glasgow were not sometimes successful were, that
they were placed in the wrong localities or were built in the
wrong way. His own idea had always been to have comfort.
able, well-lighted, and well-ventilated rooms, about 100 feet
long by 40 feet wide, lighted from the roof, and some 30 feet
in height. He thought he might say of the rooms in
Glasgow that they were as well lighted, as well warmed,
and as airy as any of those in which gentlemen were in
the habit of taking their dinners. Referring again to the
secret of the non-success of similar rooms elsewhere, Mr.
Corbett expressed the belief that it arose from the
want
of unity of management. In order to carry out the prin.
ciple properly there should be one directing head.
Where that was obtainable they would be sure
to answer commercially. In his own case he had
been repaid the whole of the capital he had laid out, with
the exception of investments in the buildings, and had
made a profit of about £7,000, which, in accordance with a
resolution he had formed, he had handed over to various
charitable purposes. Without entering into details,
he might say that the kitchen of his establishment
covered an area of a quarter of an acre in extent, and
that the milk of 120 cows daily was taken
for their use. There need be no doubt whatever
that in London such rooms would prove eminently success-
ful. The metropolis was specially fitted for such an
undertaking, but it ought to be carried out in some other
way than through the medium of committees, which, as a
rule, were weak and not adapted for such work. As the
great difficulty in London in the way of establishing
these refreshment places would be obtaining suitable halls,
he would suggest that a committee should be got together
for the purpose of providing these. Let the committee
provide the buildings, and then . let them place the
refreshment department in the hands of energetic and
competent managers, who would have it under
their own control, and would find it to their
advantage to conduct it efficiently. He specially com-
mended this view to the attention of the Earl of Shaftes-
bury, and would be delighted to find that his lordship
took it up. At the conclusion of Mr. Corbett's speech a
committee such as he had suggested was appointed, the
Earl of Shaftesbury expressing his full concurrence in the
movement which had been the subject of consideration.--
Western Morning News.

The "accident" said to have happened to Wine.
Adelina Patti should scarcely be so called. Instead of an
" accident" she has undergone a very successful operation,
performed upon her by the celebrated surgeon, N6laton,
for the removal of a small wart on the head. The opera-
tion was performed on Monday. Chloroform was not
employed, and on Tuesday the patient was going on well.

A partial strike of cotton operatives Las occurred
at Over Darwen, upon the expiration of the notice by
the masters of a reduction of five per cent. About 1,500
of the nu D met on Wedues,lay night, and rejected
almost unanimously a proposal that the reduction
should be submitted to ; hut a secord resolution was
passed declaring that a strike would be an unwise step at
present. Notwithstanding th:s resolution a number of the
men declined to accept work yesterday upon the reduced
tcale, and between 200 and 300 are voluntarily idle.
The Tablet, Ultra-Montane Journal, speaking of
Mr. Bright's declaration respecting "his" land-tenure policy
says: However open Mr. Bright's conduct may be to Minis-
terial criticism, we are not at all sorry to know that he has
got a distinct policy on this point ; for, if ho has, we know
that it will be on the side of the native Irish, not of the
absentee landlords; and his character is a guarantee that,
having taken up this subject, he "means business," and
that his policy will be " thorough." Weighty as the Church
question is, it is altogether eclipsed by the importance t 9
Ireland of a setticznogt 91 1149 question of tenure.