NEEDS OF COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS
BETTER ACCOMMODATION WANTED Of the total membership of 5206 of the United Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association of New Zealand 3676 were association members, of whom about 2500 spent a good deal of their business life “on the road,” said Mr W. F. Herrick, general secretary of the association, in evidence to the Royal Commission on Licensing yesterday. The comforts and general amenities provided should maije hotels as nearly as possible homes away from homes. Though great improvement had been made, accommodation still fell short of what it should be. The total hotel accommodation was insufficient, people frequently being unable to obtain lodgings. After the war some of the hotels in the larger centres should be enlarged and others should be rebuilt.
Better bath facilities, including plunge and shower, were desirable. In a number of hotels lavatories were not in the condition they should be, and lighting in bedrooms did not conform to modern ideas. It was thought that with an extension of time between licensing polls to, say. 10 years, the expense of substantial improvements to and enlargements of hotels was justified and ought to meet with the acceptance of owners.
The association felt that the present hours of trading in hotels encouraged breaches of the law and also a good deal of* sly-grogging. Hotels should close at 0 p.m. and should be allowed to sell for two hours later in the evenings. ft also approved ot a recommendation of the chartered clubs of New Zealand that they be allowed to mpdify their hours of trading between the range of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.. with permission, to be granted by the appropriate authority, for extension of the permit on up to six nights a year for social functions.
"The association is of the opinion that it is in the public interest that new hotel licences should be granted, in some towns at least, where no licences exist, such as Matamata. Geraldine, and Ashburton,” said Mr Herrick. “Commercial travellers who ara compelled to stay in such places find
that this has a definite interference with the ordinary amenities of life," The Canterbury association was the only one in the British Empire, he believed, which had not been granted a charter. None of the travellers’ associations had had a conviction during the whole neriod of holding its charter. None of the social activities was for personal gain. The ultimate aim of the association was to provide residential accommodation and, being without a charter, the Canterbury association would be at a disadvantage; it could be regarded as a body having a very high regard to its civic duties, and a charter could be entrusted to it with confidence that there would be no abuses of the licensing law. To Mr R. Hardie Boys (for the New Zealand Alliance); The 6 p.m. closing had good effects for a time, but it had brought about increased drinking in the homes. • Mr F. D. Sargent, counsel for the association, said there were fewer licences in New Zealand than 40 years ago. The association was not attacking the trade or prohibitionists, but the grotesque licensing laws. To Mr Robinson. Mr Herrick said a central bureau in towns at which information on accommodation could be given was desirable. Asked by the chairman (Mr Justice Smith) why the association, not bein'! prohibitionist, wanted a national roll. Mr Herrick said that the association would be pleased to see the poll done away with if it was unnecessary.
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Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24624, 21 July 1945, Page 6
Word Count
583NEEDS OF COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24624, 21 July 1945, Page 6
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