LOCAL OPTION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7173, 27 May 1885, Page 3

LOCAL OPTION.

Sic, — Permit me to add a word or two more, by way of explanation, to my letter that appeared in your columns of Thursday last. This I find I am obliged to do from a remark made by your " Argus " in his " Jottings " in yesterday's Herald. (Although I must confess, that, as I happen to know " Argus " and also hia 'cuteness, I cannot but believe that he saw my meaning clearly enough.) I should have said a little more at the time,— and so have fully set forth my meaning, — only I feared to trespass too largely on your space. — — I fully agree with "Argus," as to Local Option being . carried out by the inhabitants of any village or locality apart from outsiders, where such villages or localities are isolated or contmed to themaelves, (Nay, like Ashiey-dinton, Makareta, Kunieroa, ami others in the large Bush Districts) — but where those villages are on the main lines of public roads, such also (as in their case), being the only great Colonial thoroughfares, (aal had shown in my letter ,/i it is. a different thing altogether. . In all* such cases, especially when far apart or di^g

tant from other townships, (as I had also Bhown in my letter,) then the outsiders and particularly the travelling public should also be allowed to have their "say" in tbe matter; because it was for them as well as for the inhabitants of the said village or locality, that thoße roads were made and are being kept up at the public expense. And this argument is still the stronger —cuts the deeper, when further considered iv connexion with public Government buildings — as Court-houses. , For the. Court-house at Oimondville was not erected there mainly for the benefit of that small village (like, for instance, their two little chapels, and (he public school-house,) but for the whole large district including outsiders and the travelling public. — I am, &c, William Colexso. Napier, May 26, 1885.

Sir, — I beg leave to dispute your correspondent's dictum as to the reasonable justice of the inhabitants of country districts deciding whether there shall or shall not be licensed houses of accommodation for travellers in their midst. I am quite willing to leave to the people of each district, as far as I have a small say in the matter, to decide the point as to whether intoxicating beverages shall be sold at those places or not, but as to tbe necessity of having suitable accommodation for travellers, where any decently behaved person can not only ask accommodation as a favor, if unable to pay (and the old publicans are usually rery generous on this point), but cau also demand it as a right if willing to pay, and thus be under no obligation to the landlord, farther than for that civility and kindness that travellers usually receive plentifully over and above the amount of the bill paid by visitors to the original bonifaces whom I for one never desire to see abolished. However, if there are teetotal districts, let such have their legal desires granted in prohibiting as far as they can the I trade in strong drink, but if so let them t first put their hands in their pockets to establish and keep up suitable houses to take the places of those they now object to. The English people belong to a race of travellers , we are always shifting about and trading, and therefore as a very necessity of our trading habits we require decent places of abode for the nation at large when on the move. This present system of licensed hotels is an old custom (and custom, I believe, has some connection with modern law), still more necessary in the present than

it was in the ancient time, for I maintain that no trade can be done without travelling. If you want to sell to or buy from me you must travel to me or I to you in order to do it, and if we have only a short distance to travel we may not so much require a public-house to transact the business in, but even then such an institution is often useful as neutral territory, where we can get accommodation to talk over our affairs, even if we do not require a bedroom ; but if our business leads us a long way into the country then the necessity of such places is still more obvious, and is it right or just to concede to every little trumpery little township the power to hinder to tb^e beat of its ability the trade of the whole nation ? And mind you that nation is one whose instincts and habits are most intensely strong in the direction of trade. Aa a compromise, the way I would put it would be thus : if a district refuses to grant hotel licenses, let it as a necessary result of that fact be called upon to establish and keep in good working order, through some local body, say the Road Board, as that is an institution that is always in existence and can keep supervision over the accommodation in the temperance public-house — therefore let the Road Board be called upon to find a suitable, decent married man at fair wages to take charge and keep the beds clean, and for my part all I should expect further would be a well cooked chop or steak aud potatoes, but let them be clean and decent, and not such as the unlicensed, and too many of bven the licensed, houses are in the habit of supplying even now. But even this latter objection of "Observation's " as to bad accommodation in some licensed houses is rather a reason for improving the old law than for abolishing it altogether ; for instance, would it not be easy to make it a rulefor superintendents of oolice, with consent of R.M.'e, to have the power to order publicans who persistently supply dirty and insufficient accommodation to their customers, to either alter their ways after seven days' notice or else lose their license at once, instead of having to wait until next licensing day ; for as the law at present stands a dirty uncivil landlord, after once getting a license, can for a twelvemonth snap his fingers at the licensing board until he has to apply again for renewal. But if the police could act more 'Tjomptly I fancy much of the evil p. .^present belonging to the system would at once cease, or, at any rate, be much lessened ; but whether that or other means be taken there is no abso-

lute necessity f o* leaving suoh places of public resort in the hands of unsuitable persons. In many places the person who might best manage a temperance hotel could also look after the village library,, while his wife could superintend the bedrooms and cooking, and all to be under one roof. The payment for meals and beds would make up much of their wages, but in order to get a good man capable of carrying on such business the local board would have to compete with the present hotelkeepers, who often pay for a decent reliable man £3 10s to £4 10 a per week, and therefore the pay would have to be calculated (I think) so as to subsidise the institution to make up the amount, and whether this would be better to be paid by the district or the Government is perhaps a question to be debated. However, good men would be required, and if so, they would have to be properly paid ; and I think that comparatively few of our British people will ever deem it right or proper to hinder national trading for the whims of a few small townships, the people of which, whenever their business calls on them to travel, would just as soon object to had accommodation as do those who live in the larger centres of population. — I am, &c, L.S.

see this illegal trade Btopped, as it ia a nuiaanoe ; but let us have a hotel.— l am, &c, Vekak. Matatoku, May 26, 1885.