CONDUCT OF HOTELS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 84, 8 March 1945, Page 6

CONDUCT OF HOTELS

EVIDENCE TO COMMISSION. MAGISTRATE OUTSPOKEN. (Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, Mar. 8. At the sitting of the Licensing Commission today, Mr d. D. Willis, tor the Crown, put in a report to the Justice Department by tiie JYJarsden, Kaipara and Bay of islands Licensing Committees. The report said Jhcre was tar too much driniring among the Maoris in the proclaimed district in the Far North and that inucn social damage had resulted. Ihe opinion was expressed that at their present stage the natives were much too vulnerable to the evils of over-indulgence in liquor. A century was a very short time lor a race quite unused to intoxicating liquors to adapt itself to the social habirs of the pakeha. It was recommended that pacific islanders in New Zeamnd should bo placed under the same restrictions as the Maoris in each area, that barmen should be registered after an investigation of their character and shouid hold a certiiicate of fitness from a Magistrate. Mr Gabriel Elliott, of the Waitomo Licensing Committee, said the c.o.d. transport of liquor system should be abolished, as it was a menace to the King Country. Mr George Bodgers, of the Hauralu committee, said many hotels were catering too much for beer sales. Many had replaced "handles" with very small glasses. Measures should be standardised in all New Zealand hotels.

Attention to flouting of the Gaming Act was drawn by Air W. Rudman, of the Hauraki committee. It was wellknown, he said, that nearly every hotel had a bookmakei. He advised more severe penalties on the pakeha for supplying Alaoris with liquor for consumption off the premises. Mr J. L. Paterson, S.M., chairman of the Hamilton committee, also of the Rotorua, Raglan and Waikato committees, said that as far as their construction and accommodation were concerned the hotels in the Rotorua district were a disgrace to New Zealand. There was room in Rotorua alone for five additional modern hotels for tourists. Many abuses due to onerous conditions were imposed by owners on lessees and licensees. When he asked one lessee why he paid a heavy premium for the owner's consent to a transfer he replied: "1 am in the hotel business. If 1 did not pay i would never get another hotel." Witness said that for the same reasons lessees had paid for structural alterations ordered by the health authorities. To prevent such extortions, he thought the committees should be empowered to examine the terms of leases and contracts of transler, and to veto any conditions which might be deemed unduly onerous. No owner should be permitted to raise the rent without the consent of the committee. He gave an example of one hotel where the rent was raised from £7 10s by successive rises to £25 a week within 10 years. Some owners had instituted a system of not granting leases but weekly tenancies, thereby enabling them to uiaive sucn increases in rent.