WEEK-END INFLUX

Evening Star, Issue 25893, 10 September 1946, Page 8

WEEK-END INFLUX

RUGBY TEST MATCH MOST HOTELS FULLY BOOKED With visitors coming to Dunedin from all parts of the South Island and even from farther afield to attend the Rugby football test match on Saturday between New Zealand and Australia, the restricted accommodation facilities in this city will be severely strained. Inquires made this morning showed that all public and private hotels in the city have been fully booked for several weeks, and that the overflow cannot be contained at hotels in the suburbs. Several hotels at Rort Chalmers ami one at Mosgiel have received applications for bookings in the past few days, and an hotel at Shiel Hill with accommodation for 10 guests was fully booked three or four days ago. The extent of the accommodation shortage and commentary on the popularity of Rugby is indicated by the fact that all hotels in the commercial centre of the city are also fully booked for the following week-end, the occasion of the return match between Otago and Southland. All the leading hotels have been in-, undated with requests for accommodation from visitors wanting to attend the first test match, and in the past few days there have been 18 requests by letter, telegram, and telephone, at one hotel from persons residing in the North Island. This particular hotel, despite staff shortages, is placing all its 90 rooms at the disposal of guests, and- it has been fully booked for several weeks. Some of the rooms were reserved as soon as the announcement was made in March that Dunedin would be the venue of the first test. An official of the hotel said to-day that easily 100 applications from all parts of the Dominion had been received by letter, and that some persons, not fully appreciative of the desperate shortages of staff, had even requested reservations for dinner parties. The days of such gatherings, the official commented, were well past. The experience of other hotels has been the same, and at one of them, where the Australian team is staying from Thursday morning until Monday, all accommodation was taken many weeks ago, and in addition all accommodation has been fully reserved for January, February, and March of next year. The Railways Department reported to-day that traffic from both north and south is expected to be exceptional, especially on the expresses from Christchurch on Friday night, and the first express from Invercargill on Saturday morning. A special train is coming from Balclutha on. Saturday morning, and although it is at present impossible to. give an indication of the extent of the traffic that will he handled, many people waiting to obtain an idea of the weather conditions before the match, this train will be heavily patronised.