SUBURBAN HOTEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25157, 21 March 1945, Page 6

SUBURBAN HOTEL

INVEECARGILL PROJECT "SIT-DOWN" DRINKING (0,C.) INVERCABGILL, Tuesday A pennit has been granted to tho Invercargiil Licensing Trust to erect an hotel in South Invercargiil. This willbe the first major building undertaken by the trust. Temporary bars which were erected in the city for the opening day, July 1, were erected by the Works Department. The hotel will be a two-storeyed concrete building of modern design containing 12 guest bedrooms. All the walls and ceilings will be sound-proofed. A feature.of the design is the way in which the public bar has been cut off from the rest of the building. There will be no direct public communication between the bar and the rest of the hotel. People staying in the hotel will be able to obtain drinks in the lounge through a servery with a slide opening on to the bar. There will be no bar counter in the public bar, provision being made for sit-down drinking only.- This is in line with the trust's policy of discouraging "perpendicular" drinking, which is said to lead to excessive consumption of liquor. It is expected that work on the building will be commenced within a few days. Other projected trust buildings for which plans have been prepared are a tavern in North Invercargiil and an hotel at A venal. Permits are awaited for both these buildings, but it is understood that the authorities do not view favourably the erection at the present time of the tavern, which will not provide accommodation for the travelling public. The hotel at Avenal will be about three times as large as the hotel at South Invercargiil and because of the shortages of labour and materials it may be a considerable time before a permit is granted. The chairman of the trust, Mr H. Ritchie, said today that the hotel at South Invercargiil would not do much to relieve the accommodation problem in the city. He also claimed that the tavern at North Invercargiil was necessary to relieve congestion at the trust's temporary bars. "(Overcrowding in our temporary bars is the only undesirable feature at the present time," he said. "Crowded bars lead to more noisv drinking and, perhaps, to excessive drinking." COW ELECTROCUTED WOMAN'S NARROW ESCAPE A narrow escape from electrocution was experienced by Mrs L. Morris, a resident of Brigham's Creek, near K miieu« yesterday morning as. a . result of a power line falling across a fence on her husband's farm. One of the cows on the property came into contact with the fence and was killed outright. When examining the dead animal. Mrs' Morris was about to put her hand on the fence when she noticed the power line and realised what had happened. LOCAL AND GENERAL Loans for Building A total of 14 loans has now been granted by the City Council under its new scheme to assist in the financing of house building. Many inquiries have been received and. according to the chairman of the Housing Committee, Mr H. P. Burton, more loans are pending. Some applications have been declined because of the unsuitabiJity of the sites in relation to the type of houses proposed, or because of unsatisfactory plans and specifications. Stanley Bay Ferry "I am glad to hear that they have seen the light," said Mr J. Melling, when a timetable submitted to a meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board yesterday by the Devonport Steam Ferry Co. showed two additional trips in the Stanley Bay service. "In a roundabout way we heard that the company intended to curtail the service. Then we had the largest meeting ever held over there to protest against it. and that meeting may have done some good." Harbour Bridge Problem "The Auckland Harbour bridge is not merely a metropolitan problem." said the Director of Town Planning, Mr J. W. Mawson. when addressing the. regional conference in Auckland yesterday. "It is partly a national problem. but it is essentially regional, and I feel that a special committee set up by the Auckland regional committee would be competent to report on it." He did not think any decision should be made before a thorough survey of the region had been taken. Spread of Urban Areas "This urban spreading has got to stop," said the Director of Town Planning. Mr J. W. Mawson, when addressing the regional planning conference in Auckland yesterday. He said it had been estimated that the use of 200.000 acres of land within the boroughs of the Dominion had been lost to production through the uneconomic spreading of urban populations. This population, numbering about 900.000. could be housed on sections of_ one-fifth of an acre and provided with their parks, streets and other facilities in an area with a radius of six and a-quarter miles. National Savings Receipts National war savings in the Auckland postal district last week were £l7>3£L. This amount is £1245 in excess of the weeklv quota. The total for the financial year to date is £894.596, which is £56.500 in excess of the full _aunual quota. Twenty-seven of the 54 subcentres have exceeded the proportionate • amounts of their annual quotas to date and 19 of these have exceeded their tull amount for the year. Henderson ana Kohi|kohu are the two latest sub-centres to reach their annual quotas. 1» .tne' Auckland metropolitan area the receipts last week were £13,334. bringing the total for the year to date to £oJo.uk ■ Last Day of Summer The sun will be exactly on the celestial equator at noon today in the course of its passage from the southern to tne northern hemisphere, and the autumns equinox will occur. This equinox, by common consent, is regarded by calendar makers as the first day of autumn, because the real autumn season begins on various dates according to the terrain and the prevailing weather and cannot be determined m_ advance, n Auckland, the meteorological season or autumn generally begins about the end of the first week in March, but at has probably been somewhat delayed this year on account of the warm sunny days recently experienced.