LICENSED BROTHELS.

NZ Truth, Issue 112, 10 August 1907, Page 6

LICENSED BROTHELS.

f Laxity, of Council Officials. ! _____ ' ■ Some of the rottenest boarding- ' houses m New .'Zealand are located m • Christchirreh, and how they manage j .to procure a license is a perfect imystery. Laxity on the part of the corporation officer whose dut-^ it is to issue licenses is apparent m numerous instances. No enquiry appears to be made at all. There are quite a numbex of shanties m the city which are nothing better than brothels. A man takes his temporary 'Swife"' there for the night, and is" accommodated right away. Money is money, and they don't turn it arway unless they are full up, for a b«d for two generally means breakfast for two, and there is a prospect of future patronage. The woman of. the streets who has no home of bier own, knows where to. take the man she has collared while on the bottle, and these boarding house people must surely Ijiow that she can't have half-a-dozen husbands m the course of a week. They shut their eye* to her little game so long as the cash' is forthcoming, a,nd say nary a word. It is these low hast emporiums Where THIEVES 'iIND CROOKS PUT UP, men whom no decent person would have atyout (the premises. And if, as freqiutfintly. 'happens, country mugs with cheques happen along, they • make a good harvest' and don't have ito work for a bit unless they, are copped by coppers and made to work m gaol. The ras>cals ply the visitor with' grog and tgo through his clothes while lie is <»asleep. TKe poor loon is then left ..stranded and has to get money »by • ■hook or by, crook ;to enable him to ;get back (to thie country again. things that "hjappen m these boarding houses—some of which 1 are sly groggeries—wjould make very unpleasant reading. The harlot and i the unspeakable crook are always welcome, and the proprietor or proprietress don't troable themselves m ! .any way so long as silver is produced on entry. .That is all they :care about. T£e City Council should be a little more circumspect :in the matter of granting licenses. .At present the business amounts to j& pubHc scanda;!. i

prohibs managed to get him on the Licensing Committee last time, and he takes a keen enjoyment m visiting pubs now and again by virtue of his office to see for himself the awful viee 1 that exists there m- his imagination, and m the imagination of others of his class who always stay at the best pubs, when they clear away from Christchurch for a holiday with their respective wives — or somebody else's wife. Erwin seems to take an overweening delight m championing the yellowfaced horror, and he eats his stale vegetables (which are often stowed away under the bed at night and placed under the tap m the morning), with great gusto. The parson is welcome to his Chinaman , were he to visit the dirty low mongrel m his lair he might alter his opinion of him.