Motels built for luxury

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 24

Motels built for luxury

Publicans today do not have to worry about keeping an adequate supply of oats or hay for their guests’ weary horses. When the Travellers Rest hotel at Duvauchelle Bay on Banks Peninsula was granted a licence more than 100 years ago, that was one of the conditions.

The Travellers Rest, after several name changes, is now the Hotel-Motel des Pecheurs and is operated by Jim and Judith Smyth. Although the Smyths do not need to comply with conditions requiring oats for horses, they are still meeting the needs of their guests. Comfort in a homely atmosphere is their priority. The hotel opened in 1854 after almost four years of building. It has been undergoing redecoration since the Smyths took over in 1975. Initial renovations took seven years. Rooms built more than 100 years ago did not meet the needs of today’s visitors, so the family moved into the hotel accommodation and built 12 luxury motels for the guests. Other changes have included the addition of two bars, one a snug, extensions and redecoration of the dining room and new amenities.

As well as being able to entertain and serve day, week-end and holiday guests, the hotel is a venue for conferences. The Smyths say they can accommodate conferences of 25 to 30 people and have a room available for the meetings. Week-end or conference guests will find plenty to do in the area.

Judith and Jim Smyth know the area well and are ready to organise trips with local fishermen and drives

around the bays with the mail bus.

The Akaroa golf course is opposite the hotel, there are deer farms in the area, more than 400 km of scenic drives and walks through county reserves. Hotel des Pecheurs was operated by Alfred Silk, a storekeeper, and George Tribe, a merchant, of Lyttelton, when it began trading as the Travellers Rest Hotel in 1854. Tribe also farmed at French Farm and both were later well known publicans in Christchurch.

The hotel was required to keep a ferry boat in good order to carry passengers between the town of Akaroa and the head of the harbour. One passenger was charged five shillings but if there were more the cost of passage was two shillings and sixpence. Publicans changed frequently in later years. They included James Williams, John Anderson, Benjamin Shadbolt, Morris Salek and T. W. Barker. In 1858 the Travellers Rest was up for sale for a ground rent of £1 per annum and a conditional licence for £5 a year. It included two hectares of

land fenced and cleared.

Publicans in those days had to comply with a set of rules. Conditions in 1863 included:

Providing a shed sufficiently weathertight and fit for accommodation of at least two horses.

A lamp with two burners must be lit from sunset to sunrise and the light should be bright enough to be conspicuous from a distance all around the hotel.

Six beds must be provided for travellers in at least four bedrooms.

Premises must be in good repair and the publican must provide one public and one private sitting room besides a tap room. The house must be clean and orderly and comfortable for travellers.

A sufficient supply of water must be kept at all times for the house, horses and cattle.

Oats should be charged at no more than sixpence for a quart and must be served with the authorised quart measure.

The publican must be ready to be sworn in to act as a constable when reSuired by a magistrate or le police. He must on all occasions

render assistance and supply information to magistrates and to police in the execution of their duty. The house must carry magistrates and officers of the Supreme Court and police constables on duty with prisoners free of charge on the ferry. A visitors’ book must be kept in the custody of the licensee but when asked he must produce it for visitors or lodgers so they can remark on the accommodation.

The book should be open at all times to inspection by magistrates or the police and must be sent to the clerk of the bench in Christchurch a week before the annual licensing meeting so it can be produced at the meeting. The licence can be cancelled by any three Justices of the Peace if the conditions are not fulfilled. It can also be cancelled if drunkenness has been allowed on the premises or if any spirits have been supSlied by the house or from le premises to any aboriginal native of New Zealand. A copy of the conditions and a list of tariff must be posted in a conspicuous place-