HOUSING STRANGERS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1798, 22 August 1906, Page 2

HOUSING STRANGERS

THE EXHIBITION SEASON. THE FAMILY FIRE SIDE. EXPLOITATION OR NOT. ; (From Our Special Reporter.) - CHRISTCHURCH, August 16. The question whether visitors to Christehurcli during the Exhibition season will bo fleeced or not by those upon whom they will have to rely for board and residence depends largely upon whether tlie\ T make proper provision beforehand. The casual customer who lands in tlio city without making any previous inquiry will probably 7 be treated according to his desserts —and that will not be very pleasant. Whatever may be said to the contrary,, the Exhibition Commissioners made a great mistake in delaying the appointment or establishment of a residential bureau. A scheme of'organisation was laid before them in January. Four months later Messrs Mayes and Langdown were appointed to conduct the bureau. There was friction between the Housing Committee and tlm Commissioners, and the appointment was revoked. Again the appointment was made. Again it was revoked—until in June, about four months before the Exhibition is to open, the firm referred to was finally told to go on with its scheme. According to a municipal authority herb, the hotels of Christchurch will accommodate 3700 persons, the licensed boarding-houses 2520, and ordinary boarding-houses 1500, making a total of 7761. visitors, for whom there is accommodation in the ordinary course of things. The same authority expected that private individuals would Jbe able to “'put up”'another ten thousand. This is probably not beyond the mark. On the principle that it is sometimes, desirable to be saved from one's friends, many people wlio would not think ordinarily of. taking boarders will, be only too glad to. be getting some payment for-hospitality to st-rang-, ers during the Exhibition season in preference to entertaining one or other of their own friends throughout : the period for nothing. The bureau has already received notification of six thousand beds being available in private houses, so it looks as if the estimate of ten thousand would not be far wrong. The Colosseum- has been taken

by a Dunedin syndicate, and. will be fitted up with beds for between four and five hundred people, and there Avill be a building attached to the Exhibition which will accommodate another four or five .hundred, so that probably Christchurch will be able to put up sixteen or seventeen thousand persons over and above its own population. ' Of the nature of the accommodation it is impossible to speak with any certainty. The idea of getting houses for the Avhole or part of the season is now rather-too late to be of much use. A year ago there were quite a number of houses to let in all parts of Christchurch, but the iujdux of workmen in tho first place, and, later, of visitors, lias mopped them all up, .and to-day thei'e is not one to be had, except- by' the merest accident. Rents, too, are said to he hardening. xts for hotel accommodation, it is difficult to speak at present. In the present hotels all the accommodation has been booked for some time past for the first Aveek or tAA’o of the season, but it has to be borne in mind that the races and shoAV Avill be held during that period, and these hotel* are always crowded at that time by regular patrons who hook at one race or shoAV season for the following year. As far as these hotels are concerned, they -will not do much in the Avay of providing for the extra influx except by converting into bedrooms for the occasion any reception or sitting-rooms that can be spared. Three of the leading houses—Warner’s, the Clarendon, and the Royal—have fixed their tariff for the Exhibition season at 15s a day, this representing increases on the customary'charges of 20 per cent., 50 per cent., and 66§ per cent, respectively; but these houses cater for a well-to-do class of people and the increases -will not he grudged by those Avho are fortunate enough to gain admission. Moreover, people Avho patronise these houses are not likely to arrive in Christchurch Avithout- having previously made their arrangements. The hardship incidental to over-crowd-ing will fall chiefly upon those Avho patronise the inferior class of hotels.

The Licensed Victuallers’ Association has not yet announced whether it Avill fall in or not with the official residential bureau. If it does, then those avlio patronise the hotels -will haA’e a chance of ascertaining beforehand the tariff and the openings, and Avill be in no danger of disappointment or overcharging. If it does not, presumably the publicans Avill be at liberty to charge w-hat they like, and to alter their tariff to suit the pressure of business, and this .will be the worst possible thing, for the casual traveller who arrives unannounced has to accept the conditions on the spot. Generally speaking, hotels that usually charge eight shillings a- day or thereabouts have gone, up to ten.‘and slightly beyond, without any Avell-defined re striction as to the number of persons who may sleep in one bedroom. But the AA-hole crux of the question is the necessity for ibaking explicit arrangements before arriving in Christchurch. The idea of -depending on published lists of vacancies in private houses is absurd, and Avill land the unsophisticated in trouble. It is only by means of the bureau or of preA'ious private correspondence that the intending visitor can secure himself against sleeping out. since a published lkff of vacancies.is good only for the momentof publication. The bureau, on the other hand, can secure excellent private accommodation on such terms that the visitor may arrive in town confident that the receipt which he possesses, signed by both the bureau officials and the keeper of the. house, aa-ill place him beyond doubt in the matter of accommodation. xY great- number of the persons who are prepared to take boarders on these terms are not s*o desirous of making money out of the thing as of having their homes profitably tenanted against invasion, and it is possible to get excellent accommodation at 35s a week. booking for a single week at a time. This is not a greater increase in the cost of living than avas to bo expected in view of the hardening of rent and the probable increase in the cost of eatables. There are openings for full board and residence from 255, bed and breakfast from 15s, and bed only from 12s. The gum of. 2s 6d, which has to be deposited withthe application for each person, is paid to the landlord as a deposit, and is forfeited in case the boarder fails to take advantage of the arrangement made: otherwise it is -deducted from the account for board. Each person who get-e- accommodation through thebureau -is .-provided with,'-a, handbook containing information as to ’bus and cab fares' and is told distinctly, what he should pay for cab from the railway station "to his lodgings.