NAMES OF HOTELS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 145, 31 March 1932, Page 3

NAMES OF HOTELS.

A VISITOR'S CRITICISM. LACK OF ORIGINALITY. (Special to the " Guardian.") AUCKLAND, March 30. "Why is it that in New ' Zealand stereotyped names are always used for hotels and businesses?" asked an English visitor to Auckland. "Nothing characteristic has been sought, and, if there has been any attempt at preserving associations with Britain in this respect, it has been very slight indeed." The visitor thought the value of original names, especially lor hotels, had not been fully appreciated in New Zealand. In England, on the other hand, the greatest care was taken to preserve ancient and quaint names. There is substance in the comment of the visitor (says the "New Zealand Herald"). New Zealand public-houses last century mainly were known by colourful names, but they have been replaced by obvious and almost standardised titles. The names of Auckland's early hotels possessed wide interest. There were the Bunch of Grapes Hotel, the Red Cow, the Old House at Home, and the Black Bull, all of which have been virtually forgotten. Some of the other early hotels, such as the Greyhound, in Queen Street, and the Osprey Inn, in High Street, were known in all corners of the Pacific when Auckland occupied an important place in sailing-ship trading and as a port of call for the ships of many navies. Regret may reasonably be felt that Auckland has cast off its most picturesque hotel names. It may be called a North Island fault, for the South Island, more especially Otago and Westland, can offer numbers of early names with a strong colonial flavour. The Gridiron, the Golden Age, the Elbow, the Merrijigs, and the All Nations are still in existence, although there is a more essentially New Zealand taste about the Three-Mile, Seven-Mile, Twelve-Mile, Settlers' and Southern Cross hotels. But even in the South Island most of the appealing hotel names of tho gold-mining days have been lost. The West Coast, where several of the mushroom mining towns possessed hotels by the score, once could offer such fantastic titles as the Roaring Fancy, High and Handsome, Pouch of Nuggets and Dutch. Harry taverns. Their quality was never equalled in the North Island, although the Thames mining population and the residents of several whaling stations made earnest challenges. But reminders of the nights of fancy of the publicans who .served the miners can be found on crumbling signboards in deserted Westland townships today. There is sufficient evidence that New Zealand formerly had distinctions in the names of its hotels. The present position, when prosaic titles are the order, offers an interesting commentary on the difference between the tastes of New Zealand and England, which clings religiously to ancient circumstances.