NO ROOM FOR LODGERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 136, 10 June 1943, Page 3

NO ROOM FOR LODGERS

>The unusual case of a city hotel having no accommodation for lodgers, that of the Caledonian Hotel, was mentioned 'at the annual meeting of the Wellington Licensing Committee yesterday. The chairman, Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., asked •what was being done to meet the position. Mr. T. G. Morgan, representing the landlord, said that the hotel had been considerably damaged by earthquake. The top floor had been conIdemned by the City Council, which had given a permit for occupation of the ground floor. The owner of the building had made repeated requests to the ißuilding Controller for a permit to reibuild the hotel, but at the present time, Ihe nad been told, no permit could be igranted. Final plans had not been prepared, since they would depend on the circumstances existing when a permit could be obtained, but the owner had funds available to rebuild at a moment's notice. Mr. Stout remarked, that it did not look as if the owner could do very much about the position just now. A renewal of licence to the present licensee, Mr. F. W. Young, was granted. i Mention was also made of other (hotels where earthquake and other repair work is in progress, and it was stated that shortage of labour and materials was holding up a number of jobs where requisitions had been served. ___——.

SICK AND WOUNDED RETURN A contingent of sick and walking wounded New Zealand .soldiers invalided back from the Middle East ■was recently given a warm welcome home on their arrival by the Prime Minister (Mr.Fraser). Theretwere 107 of them, and they had a long but uneventful journey home. Mr Fraser said he did not want them to feel that they were being got rid of. That was not the spirit of the Government or of the people of New Zealand. He emphasised the need for them to see that their medical records •were complete before they left, and assured them that everything would be done to fit them to return to take up useful places in civil life. "We are grateful to you," he said, "and we welcome you back." . Others who joined in the official welcome were Mr. W. H. Price, chairman of the Harbour Board, the Hon. W. Terry, M.L.C., president of the iN.Z.R.S.A., and the Minister in charge iof the Maori War Effort (Mr. Tirikaitene). , '

' Mr./G. Abercrombie, a waterside •worker, living at 19 Jessie Street, received severe lacerated wounds to his Tight arm when he fell from a lorry 'at 6.50 p.m. yesterday. He was taken to hospital by the Free Ambulance. Dense fog, which came on at about midnight on Tuesday, covered the Auckland neighbourhood for the greater part of yesterday, and the port was closed all day. The fog, the worst for many years, lightened during .the afternoon but was heavy again for some hours in the evening. It was thick in the Hauraki Gulf in the morning. Harbour ferry traffic went on without accident except for .the stranding of one boat on a mudbank on the run to Bayswater in the evening. It was stuck for about 40 minutes. Trams and motors were delayed. Heavy fogs are frequent in the Waikato in winter, and yesterday's was thick enough to enforce low driving speeds.