Our Dunedin Letter.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 46, 14 June 1903, Page 5

Our Dunedin Letter.

i (From Our Own Correspondent.) I . . . : .:'..'■' Saturday. The annual ixieeting of th^-liicensing--CoVnraittee was held on Monday, all the.h'otels were granted renewals except 5 'eight, which -were , held ;pyer .till the: 27th instant"; chiefly on account 'of sanitary reasons. The^ licensees t were, informed , before rene^ajs ■, would be granted the various sanitary arrangements complained of; Would "require to be; improved. The.chairman^speaking' '■on; behalf of the , committee,, jntimatedthat they considered that; severaL of the-, hotels, for which 'ltera^ renewed, and which were \cohducted b*y< widows, should be controlled bymea!> The committee also,; after making a personal inspection of a wellknown, hotel, stated that " our visits have shown prominence given to the bar trade, and every, inducement, such as free lunches arid suppers,' are^provided tp' induce persbhs. -to enter and ' to 'encourage them to remain. We. have also been specially impressed with the Jarge tiiimber of youths 'on the prem-v yseis.^. tr|e^airman, in .making these and otrier remarks' of: a' like nature, very, significantly stated that he did so simply as spokesman of the committee,' 'arid didnot^necessarily, endorse them. v A peculiar case came /before Mr Cruickshank, S.M., oh Tuesday morning ai: the. Police Court, jwh'en the licensee of the Seacliff Hotel was charged with refusing to provide, lodging to travellers without valid reason. The charge was laid under section 129 of the Licensing Act, 1881. Evidence was given by two men employed by the Telegraph. Department, to the effect that on the 18th May they went to do some work at Seacliff, and asked for accommodation for the jiigbt at the hotel. The licensee, after looking them up and down, said he could not put them up, he subsequently said the house was full. He was -then asked to give them a shakedown, but refused. The constable at Seacliff said the hotel was well conducted, and the licensee had a difficult job in managing it owing to its proximity to the Asylum. Had no reason to doubt the statement that the hotel was full, but from the list of boarders supplied by. the licensee considered he could have put up the men, if he shifted the boarders round. Twomey, the licensee, stated the house was full, if the men had been civil he would have made an effort to give them a shakedown. The Magistrate dismissed the case, and stated that a licensee was not compelled to give a traveller a shakedown. The Otago Executive of the New Zealand Farmers'- Union held a meeting last week, when there was a fair attendance. The executive resolved to support the following motions which will be brought before the Colonial Conference next, month :— That some .form of graduated- levy be arranged, instead of the present all round subscription. That it is urgently necessary that subsidies to lapal bodies be increased. That the action of the Waikato Farmers' Club and the Hawke's Bay A. and P. Society re amendment of the Slaughtering Act be approved. That the sheep tax be abolished. That the conference considers the question of fencing between Crown and private lands, so that there will be a legal claim on the Crown for boundary fencing;" Regarding the Mutual Fire Insurance scheme, a sub-committee'was appointed to go fully into the question. Owing to the reduction of hotels many visitors to the last Winter Show experienced great difficulty in obtaining board and lodging, and the Otago A. and P. Society is considering the question of assisting country visitors at show time in procuring accommodation. In this connection it is stated that the Tourist Department has already taken steps in the matter, and anyone visiting the city can, on calling at that office, ascertain from a register which is kept the addresses of 50 boarding-houses, with a total, capacity of 450 boarders. During the* Science Congress in January last, when accommodation was at a premium, numbers of visitors secured quarters in this ,way, who otherwise would have been put to great inconvenience. But it is obvious ,that, considering the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who come in on show days, the above capacity would do little to provide accommodation for large numbers of persons. It is difficult to see how accommodation is to be provided, for, although the population is increasing at a rapid rate in the city and Otago, the hotels are even .more rapidly being reduced, and Wotftef accommodation is being provided in their place. Most people have forgotten the old Kaitangata Coal Co., but no doubt the shareholders, who had to pay up the thousands of pounds wasted by the directors in contesting the claim for royalty, have a more lively sense of its existence ! On Friday the final act in connection with the old company took I place, and it was wound up for good • and all. The meeting of shareholders must have been rather a mournful proceeding, but they appear to have accepted their fate like lambs brought to the slaughter. According to the.statement made by the late chairman of directors, the ,■ verdict given against the company for royalty due to Mr Aitcheson was' £3^B is, and the legal expenses of the trial amounted to £2322 17s i id, making 18s nd. As everybody knows,; this large sum' for legal expenses might have been saved the shareholders' had the directors not foolishly contested the claim, which 1V39 honesty due.