STATE OF CITY HOTELS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19038, 11 June 1936, Page 4

STATE OF CITY HOTELS

COMMITTEE CRITICISM NEED FOR.REPAIRS . (Por Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Disquieting revelations as to the conditions in certain Auckland hotels were made at the annual meeting of the Auckland Licensing Committee yesterday. After visiting all of the older hotels the committee adjourned consideration of the licenses of six houses for reports from the owners or architects.

"The committee desires to inspect some of the older houses, because it feels that these houses should be rebuilt," said Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., who presided. "Since these houses were built. Auckland has progressed enormously. It is true that several large hotels have been built, but the committee is informed that the accommodation is taxed, and at some seasons is inadequate. It is in the interests of the public that these should be rebuilt.

"The committee has asked me to say that it considers the time is long) overdue for a comprehensive re-enactment of the licensing laws " continued Mr. Wilson "They are in many respects archaic, having come into being in the 'seventies and the early 'eigl:tles, when the public requirements were quite different."

A "state o{ dia'epair amounting to dclapidation," was Mr. Wilson's descrip tion of the Queen's Ferry Hotel. "We want the owner to put some better proposition before us,' 1 he said. The police report on the Imperial Hotel stated that the house showed signs of age, and was mfested with rats. A lavatory had been leaking into a cellar where beer was stored. This defect had fortunately been rnnedied.

"The Suffolk Hotel is another very ancient buildirig, bit although dirty and not kept clean, it is in a fair state of repair considering ife age," continued the report. "Howevc, there is no dining room for the publb and the people have to have their meat in the kitchen."

The application was adjourned. Comment was also male regarding several other hotels.