The Taverns Of Thames

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1939, Page 4

The Taverns Of Thames

THE Thames Licensing Committee has decided that something should be done about the superfluous hotels under its jurisdiction. In the small, somnolent township of Coromandel there are four hotels. In Thames, with barely half the population of Whangarei, there are 13. These hotels are relics of the gold mining days, when the whole Hauraki district supported a large and thirsty population. There is, however, no economic justification for the existence of all of them to-day, but New Zealand’s illogical licensing laws make it extremely difficult to transfer a license, even though the distribution of population in the areas concerned may have completely altered since *the original license was granted.

Even if, to take an extreme illustration, the population of Thames were to diminish to the proverbial “two men and a dog,” it would still have its 13 hotels. Such a position actually exists in parts of the South Island w r here “ghost towns” of the old mining days still retain their full quota of hotels. The position at Hokitika is even .more ludicrous than at Thames, and there are similar instances in central Otago. It is impossible for such hotels to keep abreast of the times, and in some cases the buildings are in a sorry state of neglect. Even in Northland there are examples of hotel licenses which would serve both the needs of the travelling public, and the interests of the proprietors a great deal better if they could be transferred to new locations; but the licensinglaws offer a barrier to any re-distribution of licenses, and until the law is altered there is not much that can be done.