TOO MANY GUESTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25852, 24 May 1945, Page 4

TOO MANY GUESTS

OVERCROWDED HOTELS POUCE SUSPICIONS I (P.A.) AUCKLAND, May 23.. “There is a strong suspicion that it is done only for the purpose of legalising the sale of liquor,” said James Sweeney superintendent of police in Auckland, giving evidence to-day before the Royal Commission on Licensing, regarding overcrowding in hotels. He mentioned three Auckland hotels, the Victoria, Gleeson’s, and the Albion, which he said catered to a large extent for naval ratings. Overcrowding in hotels, said witness, had been causing trouble for some time. The licensees were not committing any offence, but at the same time it did not seem to be right. 194 Guests—l 6 Rooms At the Victoria Hotel, the police on making a visit on March 22 last found that 194 persons were booked in at 9.5 p.m. and 2566 bottles of liquor had been sold, witness said. At 4 o’clock the following morning three ratings were found asleep on chairs in the commercial room and four were found stretched out on the floor of a passage. Sixteen rooms were available in ordinary circumstances and the hotel charged Is 6d per person for stopping there the night. On March 23, 214 persons had booked in at 9.15 p.m., and at 9.5 p.m. the following night the figure was 171. Seven hours later seven ratings were found asleep in the commercial room and passages. On March 27, 109 were booked in at 11.15 p.m., and at 6.10 the following morning only 29 were on the premises. At 11.30 p.m. on April 10, 187 were booked in, and there were only 27 on the premises at 4 o’clock the following morning. On April 16, 192 were booked in, ana only 50 remained at 4 o’clock the next morning. At Gleeson's Hotel, witness said, 150 were booked in on March 25. On March 30, 142 were booked in. Beds for 42 persons were provided. There were also shakedowns for 38 persons, but these were unoccupied. On March 31, 53 were booked In. A charge of Is for a shakedown was made at the Albion Hotel. No particulars as to the bookings at the hotel were obtained. Maoris and Liquor

At the Albion, witness said, 19 rooms were available nightly during the year. The nightly average of people booked in was 70. At the Victoria Hotel 16 rooms were available and there was a nightly average of 100 booked in during the year. In other city hotels no accommodation had been taken up in excess of that provided.

Referring to the supply of liquor to Maoris, witness said he thought that Natives should not be supplied except on the premises. He considered that the penalties for licensing breaches should be increased. In the case of islanders, the same provisions as for Maoris should apply. Hindus, he said, caused a lot of trouble by supplying liquor to Natives, and he advocated that they should be allowed to consume liquor only on licensed premises. Witness said he considered that any new licences granted should be taken from districts such as Thames and Coromandel, which had an excess of their requirements. He thought that no-licence districts should be abolished, stating that it was easier from the police point of view to control hotels than to stop sly-grog selling. The managers of hotels, he thought, should be paid" a fixed rate instead of on a percentage basis. Vertical Drinking Favoured

The police would be saved a good deal of trouble if the alcoholic strength of liquor was defined, continued witness. .He was not in favour of ments or recreation facilities being provided in hotels. He was not an advocate of the table system of consuming liquor on the grounds that it was difficult to determine under such a system vvhen a person was in a state of intoxication. Vertical drinking, he said, did not encourage drinking to the same extent as at tables. ' ' "