Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1925, Page 2

Tun annual meeting of the Westland Licensing Committee- this week passed off very Miioothily. indicating the fact Hint licensees are complyiupr very satisfactorily with the law—at all events ! meeting the wishes of the police. In recent times a good deal of improvement lias hoen effected in the aecom- - modation and the eonduet of the hotels. There are shortcomings of course, hut looking to tho restricted tenure the • hotelkeepers have, the puhlic are certainly well catered for. The more popular hotels patronised !>y the public, are in that category chiefly I localise they sire laid out to cater for the trade. -Much has Iveen done of late years in providing hath room and other conveniences and in the general ecpiipment of the- hotels. The tables are invariably well supplied. In districts such as this where population is restricted and the volume of traffic not large, the traveller is very comfortably catered for. On special holiday occasions, the hotelkeepers invariably rise to the occasion, and despite a heavy inilux of visitors, continue to make their guests comfortable. The law for inn-keepers is a very stringent one. but despite restrictions and limitations, and in particular the demands of guests, the licensees conduct their hotels without serious breaches of the law. This is the more creditable lieeause of the restricted trade it is possible to do. Here the same license fee l is payable as in | a city, where the opportunities for trade are so much greater. But the law is as well resjiected here as in the centres where the larger and more profitable business is to lie done. If the country desires to demand a more superior class of hotel, it must be prepared to do something to encourage the enterprise needed to entice tho undertaking. A longer tenure is essential. This is a subject which crops up

often, but has never Iseen put to the test in Parliament. The Government continues to dodge the issue by relegating the subject to a special committee which is variably partisan, and brings down u colorless report. Meantime the session has run its course and the report is pigeon-holed. Where these reports are stored there are so many that there must now be a congestion. It is time the subject was brought to a head and steps taken to test the question straight out. Under a longer tenure, hotel proprietors would have more confidence in launching out, and providing even better houses and accommodation than they do at present. There would he competition along such lines, and in the end the public would derive the benefit, while with the assurance of good hotel accommodation more of the wealthy travelling public would be attracted from overseas to the Dominion.