REASSURING STATEMENTS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12569, 11 August 1906, Page 10

REASSURING STATEMENTS.

NO SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE TO B&$ MADE. ' '- . -*_t| The subjeot matter of the abovesage was brought under the notice -f,p! .Mr J. Neill hy a "Press" reporter ye-&*| terday. Mr Neill wan chairman of th*, '8 Defence Committee of the Licensed tttallers'. Association when a n_at-oit',.gjj was adopted to tho effect that the berff of the Association would ■charge exorbitant' -raitcs during Exhibition season. Some of. the hotel,£ ( proprietors had accordingly increased' 7 their tariff a little for that period,.";?; but to ( notfhLng like the extent men-'..; | tioned in the message. He, himself, baAfyl increased the tariff from 10s 6d a day, and .that was about the r»t6';~<i of increase that the other proprietor* V 3 had adopted. ' It was a very hard-.'' 1 ; thing far one innkeeper to. dictate, to ■/** another w-uut he should do, but' he .■$ did not think for a moment that any;.'S hotel-keeper would do such a foolish. 7, thine «* to increase his charges to such \ an enormous extent-. • V( Mr J. Carl, the present chairman of 7, the Defence Committee, repeated tih_4 ' ''. the hotelkeepers had agreed th mako '. '■: only a small increase on their pieeemt 7 tariff during Exhibition time, and that, / decision had been communicated to Mir ', tlie oliairman of the Housing ' Comrmittec. As far as ho knew the "- hotelkeepers keeping to tho* agreement, and in fact some of them were mot increasing their tariff at all, believing that it would not be policy to do so. In view of what had happened, however, a deputation from tho hotelkeepers would wait on the Housing Committee and repeat the assurance -already given that no substantial increase would be made.

The proprietor of one of the leading , hotels here, who was asked for information on tlio subject, said lie oould not believe that such en exorbitant - amount as 30s a day oould have been ' quotecT by any hotelkeeper here. The ordinary tariff at his hotel was 12s 6d a day, which would be increased to 15- ; a day during tlie Exhibition season, and he oould say that at none of the leading hotels iii Christeliurch. would tliat amount be exceeded. • "Tlie Governor will be staying at our hotelj" ho . added, "aftd a number of Government guests, and none of them will pay more than 15s daily." Tlio result of our reproscntative-fl enquiries showed that the idea of the proprietor of «my reputable hotel being R» foolish as to charge such an absurd rate is scouted as improbable.. One of tho gentlemen interviewed suggested, however, that the application for rooms might have boon made to some small suburban hotel, where Exhibition visi- , tors wore not wanted, and that the 30s a day tariff might luave been quoted in order to prevent ~uch visitors from coming.