OLD CHARLESTON TODAY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27035, 9 May 1953, Page 6

OLD CHARLESTON TODAY

Last Hotel Licence May Be Lost RELIC OF BOOM MINING TOWN (From Our Own Reporter) WESTPORT, May 8. If the licence of the European Hotel is cancelled, the last remaining assoc - ation of Charleston with its famous days will disappear. Built m 1867, the year after Charleston was founded, the hotel is a solitary relic of the palmy days when the town of Charleston had a population of 12,000, at least 90 hotels, three breweries, three banks, and two newspapers. For years, the European Hotel has stood as the gaunt skeleton of the ghost town- Except for the building of a window in its bar to give a view down to Constant Bay, the towns .harbour, and the erection of an ornately lead-lighted sign which originally graced the George street frontage of Dunedin’s European Hotel, the building remains as it was at its opening. 'Bien it was one of the town’s two leading houses and "compared favourably With the best on the goldfields of that day.” The only other buildings in what was the busiest area of old Charleston are the new school, built only two years ago, and the new police station, now used as the schoolteacher's residence. “Charleston is at the lowest ebb it will ever be—it cannot get any lower,” said Mr J. H. Powell, the owner of the European Hotel when he chatted to a reporter of “The Press" this week at Westport, where he now lives in retirement.

The hotel Is leased to his son-in-law, Mr A. D. (Brum) Alford. "I do not know what his intentions are but I propose to present good cause why the licence should not oe cancelled when the Licensing Commission calls for the evidence within six months,” said Mr Powell. "In my 3J) years in the hotel, I was never convicted of any breaches. The hotel had one boarder for 19 years and others have stayed for years." Now the only building between the main highway and Constant Baysheep run over part of the sites of shops and hotels which lined the main street down to the bay—the hotel is an "old curiosity shop” and tourists on buses and in cars stop for a visit, to hear the stories of Charleston in the days that will never return and to glance at the photographs of buildings long since gone and of men whose names are but historical records.

Every day, the talk at the European is of the days when 30,000 miners and tradesmen and professional men lived in the Charleston area, called the Pakihi (or “Parkeese”). The whole atmosphere of the hotel is redolent of the past. Race-Day Attractions Only recently an old photograph was taken down from the wall of the hotel and at the back was found a programme for the Boxing Day races in 1872. The main event was the Town Purse of 50 sovs, distance three miles, and a race for women riders. The “first bell" was at 1 p.m. The programme advertised the other race-day and night attractions. The grandstand booth, “with the best liquors and counter lunch,” was conducted by Miss Carmody, and Dennis Kelly invited the sporting public to the race ball at the Casine di Venise. For the second night of the races, the Misses Dergan had an attraction— a grand ball and supper—at the Shamrock Hotel.

Two big art unions were announced. Marney’s was of “60 valuable prizes, value £250,” while Magner offered “30 magnificent prizes, nuggets, watches, and jewellery, value £lso,’’ the tickets being £1 each. Sweepstakes were run at the races and the Melbourne Hotel each evening. Patrick Regan, of the Post Office Hotel, advised the patrons to “look out for the No. 1 North booth,” with “superior liquor and counter lunch each day.” “First-class table with civil attendants” was advertised by Carr’s Oddfellows’ Hotel and restaurant in Prince’s street. The hotel had “good beds, comfortable sitting rooms and liquors, wines, etc., of the best description.”

As one of Charleston’s elite houses, the European Hotel advertised that Charles Weitzel was offering “a good table during the holidays, with good bedrooms and private parlours ana the best of liquors and ales.” An added attraction was “all papers taken in”— the availability of newspapers being considered a valuable service in those days. Faith in Future Today, the European Hotel—with its origihal facade and galvanised iron walls—stands a few yards off the highway, its doors and windows opening out and looking out to wastes which once carried a population greater than Westport, then or now. In the whole of the area are 15 farms, three timber mills and four coal mines, while six coal mines are operating at the Six

But Mr Powell, the fifth in the line of licensees of the European Hotel, has faith in better days for Charleston. “If gold goes up in price to, say, £2O an ounce, there will be another rush,” he said. “Not like the old days; but there will be a great revival. Only one claim, that of the Phoenix company, at the Nine Mile Beach, is now being worked, but it is doing extremely well. The gold is still in the Charleston area. The easy-won gold has gone, but if the price goes to £2O an ounce it will be different. Even with the price at £l2 8s today, the production of gold must be highly payable. Some claims are held already in expectation of a rush.”

Gold was not the only resource for the resurrection of a new Charleston, in Mr Powell’s view. The timber in the district, he said, was hardly touched, and there were silica and feldspar clay deposits. The lignite deposits were known, and “any amount” of anthracite of the highest grade was to be found in the hills at the back of Charleston. “There is nothing to stop industry getting started,” he said. “All that is wanted is enterprise. When an industry or a district has to be run by a Government, it is a bad look-out. A Government is the boss of the nation and will do what pleases it.” Praise for Charleston as a place for retirement is given by Mr E. Falconer, whose home is at Constant Bay, and who worked in Westport. His hobby is fishing in the bay. He also tells to the credulous visitors to the European Hotel a tale of not only good meals of fish to be caught, but of seeing mermaids one night. His story is a bright one among the breezy reminiscences given to visitors to the European.