HOTEL HISTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1930, Page 6

HOTEL HISTORY.

An entry in an early pioneer'et diary dated October 12, 1842, says, in speaking of Auckland, • "There seems to be a grog shop ftor every three of all the other trades put together." Old Auckland certainly had no lack of hotela. A directory [ dated 1866-67 lists no fewer than ninety-two in • the city itself, exclusive of surrounding districts. [ Twenty-two of these were in Queen Street! i To-day, with about twenty times tihe population, i there are only fifty-eight licensed hotels in the i same area! In those days, there bqdng but about two theatres and one club in the tcrwn, the hotels . acted as centres where the men of the place at [ any rate could congregate for socftil intercourse. ( Although many of the old hotels Ivere bars and ■ little more, several of them had otfter attractions I beyond the liquor. In the commercial room at i the old Exchange Hotel, Queen Street, for instance, [ newspapers from Great Britain, 'France, Italy, ■ Austria, Denmark, Spain, Russia, America, India, and, of course, Australia and New Zealand, could be read. Truly a cosmopolitan that commercial room! A small subscription was charged r for the use of it, eo that in a *way it was a . little club. Some of these old hotels certainly [ had more picturesque names thaji our modern I ones. Cottage of Content, The Dave, Old House . at Home, and others are surely more attractive , than some of those of to-day. Ofcfoer odd names [ among the old ones were Bricldayers' Arms, , Coasters' Home, Hammer in Hand and Lion and [ Lamb. Several were named after famous men . in New Zealand history, such ae Geiueral Cameron, , Governor Hobson, Governor Browne and Captain I Cook. —ROLLING STONE.