ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 635, 16 May 1878, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[Wo are not responsible for tbo opinions expressed by om correspondents.] <j, GROG SHANTIES. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL. Sir, —I was glad to see your manly article of the 13th inst. on what we commonh'- call the shanties of Oamaru, and I will just, give you a little of rny experience in Oamaru for the last two years, since I came from the Old Country. I have a son 17 years of age this month, and he is employed at the handsome rate of LI ss. per week ; but who receives the money ? Who, but the shanties of Oamaru. On last Saturday night, for the first time, I went in search of my ungrateful boy, and, as I just expected, I found him dancing away in one of the shanties. I begged of him to come home, hut all to no use. He remained out that night. Next morning (Sunday) I went in search of my lost boy, and found him drinking in one of our Oamaru hotels. Now, Mr. Editor, are not the hotels of Oamaru quite as bad as the shanties ? The shanties of Oamaru sell drink publicly on Sundays. You have only to step inside and you will find the barman in his usual place. Well, Mr. Editor, all I have to say is this : God help the rising youth of Oamaru. By giving insertion to the above you will oblige yours faithfully, A Struggling Parent. Oamaru. May 15. [Our correspondent has made a too sweeping assertion with regard to the licensed houses of Oamaru. Some of them, at least, will bear favorable comparison with those of other towns.—Ed. E.M.] U0 THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL. I desire to bring under your notice the small attention which hotel-keepers in Oamaru devote to their principal supporters, viz., the Dunedin and other travellers. Arriving by the Samson at G a.m. on a bleak, cold mr.rning, I hurried to an hotel, looking forward to a comfortable fire in a clean room—the ordinary rec-'ption which an hotel-keeper who understood his business would naturally provide. I, however, was sadly disappointed, and thought to myself it is strange that, in a town of the size of Oamaru, there is not one hotel-keeper who has sufficient foresight to provide suitable accommodation for the many who arrive here weekly from Dunedin and elsewhere before the ordinary hour of rising of the Oamaru folk. I would, therefore suggest that some hotelkeeper should advertise that he is prepared in future to remedy this oft-men-tioned want, and I feel sure that in many ways he will be rewarded, because travellers—especially commercial travellers—never grumble at the cost of any extra, or even ordinary, comfort.—l am, &c. A. Tkavellzb,