OLD GREYMOUTH HOTELS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 March 1946, Page 2

OLD GREYMOUTH HOTELS

RECORDS FOUND IN SAILORS’ REST DEMOLITION OF BUILDING The demolition of the Sailors’ Rest was commenced yesterday by employees of the Greymouth Harbour Board. The building, which was Greymouth’s original Town Hall, has sheltered for many years a number of borough records, which, were discovered by the workmen when demolishing the ceiling. Apparently they had been placed there fop storage and were not removed to the present Town Hall and borough offices when they were opened shortly after the turn of the century. Among the documents discovered was a record of publicans’ licences issued between 1889 and 1892. In 1889 25 licences were issued and in 1892 the number had been reduced to 23, as compared with the 21 hotels in Greymouth to-day. Records of the early days, when between 40 and 50 hotels carried on a lively business ip the town, were not available. Among the names of the hotels 56 years ago were the familiar Club, Albion, Suburban, Recreation, Australasian, and Duke of EdinburghOthers, less familiar to the youngei’ generation of Greymouth, included the Rose of Australia, Criterion, Post Office, Trafalgar and Wharf. The last-named was the predecessor of to-day’s Royal, the Waverley was situated where the Park now stands, and the Rose of Australia was on the site of the Central.

Licences, at the time of the records studied this morning, cost £4O and were tenable from July 1 to the ensuing June 30. .They were issued conditional on only one bar being used and liquor could be sold from 6 a.m. till 10 p.m. For a further fee of £5 an extension of time was granted and the publican could remain open for business until 11 P-m. If he paid £lO he was allowed to carry on his trade until midnight. A perusal of the old licences shows that most hotelkeepers availed themselves of the opportunity of doing extra business by paying the surcharge. The exceptions appeared to be hotels well away from the centre of the town, either because business was not so brisk or because proprietors did not consider it necessary to have legal sanction for doing extra trading.