HOTELS CROWDED IN AUCKLAND

Southland Times, Issue 25680, 24 May 1945, Page 3

HOTELS CROWDED IN AUCKLAND

Opinion Of Police Superintendent EVIDENCE - TENDERED TO COMMISSION (P.’A.) AUCKLAND, May 23. “There is a strong suspicion that it is only done for the purpose of legalizing the sale of liquor,” said James Sweeney, Superintendent of Police in Auckland, in giving evidence today 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 the witness, had been causing trouble for some time. Licensees were not committing any offence, but at the same time it did not seem to be right. 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 256 bottles of liquor had been sold at four 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 the passage. Sixteen rooms were available in ordinary circumstances, and the hotel charged 1/6 a 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 the 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 four o’clock the following morning. On April 16 192 were booked in, and only 50 remained at four o’clock next morning. At Gleeson’s Hotel 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 36 persons, but these were unoccupied. At 10.35 p.m. on March 31 53 were booked in. A charge of 1/- for a shakedown was made. At the Albion Hotel no particulars as to bookings at the hotel were obtained. At the Albion 19 rooms were available nightly. During* the year a nightly average of 70 people stayed there. 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. POSITION OF MAORIS Referring to supply of liquor to Maoris, the witness thought natives should not be supplied, except on the premises. He considered 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. The witness 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 no-licence districts should be abolished, stating that it was easier from the police point of view to control hotels than to stop sly-grogging. Managers of hotels, he thought, should be paid a fixed rate, instead of on a percentage basis. The police would be saved a good deal of trouble if the alcoholic strength of liquor was defined, continued the witness. He was not in favour of amusements or recreation facilities being provided in hotels, and 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 when a person was in a state of intoxication. Vertical drinking, he said, did not encourage drinking to the same extent as at tables. James Trevor Donovan, a waterside worker and a former member of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, said the fighting qualities of the Dominion troops would not have been evident had the men been “soaked in alcohol” as militant prohibitionists would have the public believe. The men overseas, he said, would take a grave view of any attempt to restrict their liberty of enjoying liquor in moderation. Returned men should be given consideration when licences were redistributed.