THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out faciam." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1861.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23, 11 December 1861, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out faciam." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1861.

Nothing enhances the reputation of a town so much as the character of its hotel 'accommodation. Travellers will pass rapidly through a place, or make a long stay in it, according a.-* they are pleased or dissatisfied with the manner in which its hotels are conducted. Motels have been characterised., as possessing ail the comforts of home, without the disconv(brts that are entailed by the caivs of domestic

arrangements. Kngiishiiicrs, especially, are acca.stoined to consider they are entitled to receive in holes all the consideration they can coniman-i in their own houses, so long as they are will ng to pay the cost. Many persona even prelV-r'iiving in hotels to private residences, because the e>tai>lishm> nts being larger they can command better attendance and more luxuries. {Sheiistuiic; we think it was who said —

Whoe'er has travelled Iba's dull round, Where'er his \vea<ied path has been, May sigh to think how oil he found, His-warmest welcome at an inn.

Most persons indeed would he apt to regard as an intolerable h. i\!s ip .any attempt to carfail, by artificial legislative ivs notions, the [privileges and attention they deem they are entitled to in an hotel. Dunedin, we are afraid, will obtain a very unenviable notoriety in this respect. Only the other day, it appeared through th-j nKiliu.ni of the police court, that gentlemen of unexceptionable respectability, Jiving fii fain ILL* in an hotel, were refused refreshments alter an' early hour in the evening, on the grounds that the law forbade the lan. 11 >rd to *a,/p!.y th,m ; anl'even the wine, for which; thjy ha 1 paid, was permitted them on'y as a favour ! There is something almost of the ludicrous in this, —-that the law should dictate to persuns living in whit they consider their own home, at what hour they should cease to feel hungry and thhvty. We are quite willing to admit the necessity of some regulations as to the hours during whi-.-h drink wliou-d be obtainable at a public house—:-md would not advocate that the bar sho-ild be open at all ho irsofthe day and night to chance customers, and espepecially so on a Sunday. But there is a wide difference between- interposing a check on the thirsty propensities of itinerant baceh.inaliaris, and allowui..'; the residents of hotel* to choose

the times during which they desire to partake of refreshments.

A distinction 'should also be drawn between chance customers and travellers requiring accommodation. Instead of preventing an i hotel from suppMiv the wants of a traveller, it should be compelled to do so. Supposing we admit that extra charges should be mule for night licences," we none the Jess ia ist that when it suirs the purpose of a landlord be should obtain m •, and be allovted to keep open during the night to receive travellers, anJ afford them act/ounnodafion. If the privilege is abused and the house kept open to a i comers, the remedy is easy in the extivme, the Police can always demand admission into an hotel, an 1 if indiscriminate drinking wvre goi:ig on, the landlord could be fined. VVe are not -detailing a theoretical idea, the practice we allude to prevails in every large town wu have ever known excepting Dunedin. Economising time is quite in accordance with modern ideas of civilization, and the traveller who finds it necessary to arrive at a place late at 'nigh<", i-- nt sübjected to the alternative of sleeping in the streets, or housing him-elf in some low place of unlicensed entertainment Respectable boarding houses will not receive strangers at late hour*,, but when licensed houses are subjected to restrictions as to I closing hours, unlicensed places are sure to spring up and oifer all the facilities that their customers require. To these the police have no access, so that scenes of the wildest lawlessness may occur in them without theanthori-j tiej being permitted to interfere. In the; cause of morality it is far preferable, that houses amenable to proper control should be licensed, than to encourage the existence of unlicensed places, where reasonable indulgence is allowed to degenerate into ungovernable debauchery.

Sydney Smith, tells a stoiy of a man who was fo imich nffeeted by a charity sermon, that he put his hand into his neighbour's pocket and emptied it out into the plate. The people who enact the laws that relate to the sale of refreshments in Otago, seem to be affected with a like kind of spurious sentimentality. Instead of being contented with adopting temperance views themselves, they seek to cram their ideas down the throats of others. They

make arbitrary restrictions that have no otheri effect than to drive people from respectable! houses, under proper control, to places of. doubtful repute, over which no authority can' be exercised. They prevent persons who do:

not possess homes ol their own from envying the ordinary privileges of domestic lii'c liow would they themselves like, that they should be compelled, by legislative enactment, to bo I home at a certain hour in the evening, or that they should be denied a glass of malt with snppor, or a ".nightcap' 1 of whiskey hot, after it ? ■ IVrhaps they consider wh-. n they enjoy these luxuries themselves, tlv.it they arone for their wrong doing in bei ig the ni-'ris of forcing abstinence on others 'I lie general pubii:. in fiet, are ih-Av whipp'n? hoys But i these iiju con ten r to bear their own s'.ns on jt'iH'ir on*n shoulders, and*d = )not de-ire to liave i forced on ihem the pecnliar doctrine ,-s of others. The resident at an horel thinks h..- i^. entitled to choose Ills awn hours !<)»• lvf'reslimanf ; and I the travelier, arriving; after a lo.ig journey, derives no comfort /;.>r a cheerless night, from the knowledge that he is being offered up as a victim to the pharisaical notions-of those whom Burns not inaptly terms "the unco byp*ions." We trust thai: without delay, an Ordinance will be framed, permitting night licenses, for supplying the wants of travellers, and making an exception in favour of bo-lafide residents at hotels, who desire to procure refreshments at any hour within reason.

From a message received by t.'ne Provincial Council from His Honor the Superintendent, we learn that the particulars of the E/.iyner case, with all the correspondence between the Government, Sir. Maeaudrew, and Messrs. Rayner, has. been submitted to the General Government to decide on what course should be pursued, Messrs R.iyner having declined to furnish the Provincial Government with any information as to the transaction. We have much pleasure in directing our I readers' attention to the lecture which is to be! •.teiive'reil in Knox Church this evening, by T 8 Forsaith. Esq , under the auspices of the Young Men's Ciiristian Association. The subject is' •• The Manners and Customs of our Forefathers " Wo understand that the lo%s of sheep by t'ac " Hydra" was not so large as we stated ; 350 only v/ero lost out of 20(30. The ALiinga's last voyage from Melbourne is one of the quickest on record, being under five days. The addition to the jetty is now nearly finished •, the piles are all driven, and there is only a little of the flooring* to be completed.. A petition lias j been presented to the Council, praying that thej proposed new jetty might be in continuation oi'\ Rattray-street, instead of Stewart-street. j Two very sudden deaths have occurred during the week from congestion of ,the lungs. Both of the deceased were from the diggings. The San Francisco Minstrels have returned to this town, after a most successful tour through the gold fields, and are performing nightly in the Commercial Hall, Princes-street. The laTt news from the Lachlan Diggings has rather cooled the ardour of a number of those who were about leaving this Province for them. In consequence of the unfortunate nature of tJieintelliirence brought by the " Aldinga " respecting the newly discovered diggings in Australia, a number of j miners who had taken their pn^uge for Melbourne a id Sydney, roturne i from Port Chalmers yesterday and forfeited their passage money.