THE COMMERCIAL HOTEL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4056, 3 June 1938, Page 5

THE COMMERCIAL HOTEL

COMPLIMENTS FROM COMMITTEE. REFERENCE TO LICENSING LAWSDuring the progress of the annual meeting of the Waitomo Licensing Committee in Te Awamutu on Wednesday afternoon the chairman, Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M., took the opportunity to compliment the owners of the new Commercial Hotel upon providing such a palatial and well-ap-pointed hotel for Te Awamutu. The premises would, he predicted, serve the needs of the community for years to come, and would ever be a credit to the owners and the licensee. His impression of Te Awamutu was that it amply warranted a first-class hotel and that need had been provided in the Commercial.

Mr L. G. Armstrong, a member of the Committee, supplemented these remarks, saying that, as an old resident of Te Awamutu, he could beat witness that the hotel marked a new era in the town and district, and he complimented the proprietors upon their confidence in Te Awamutu—a confidence that he was certain they would not regret. The town was growing as fast as any other centre in New Zealand. It had a wonderful district surrounding it, and he could conceive nothing that •would justify any spirit of doubt about the future of such a progressive and fertile district.

The Hon Eliot Davis, who was present, thanked the Committee for its encouraging words. As a director of the proprietors, Messrs Hancock and Company, Ltd., he would say that it gave the firm great pleasure and satisfaction in knowing that the Committee was satisfied with the enter prise displayed. As a matter of interest, the total cost of the building and its fittings and furnishings was nearly twice the amount originally planned for them; but his associates felt that it was a duty to cater foi the needs of such a district as Te Awamutu. The new hotel would meet a long-felt want and they hoped it would meet with the approval of the people who desired to see such a hotel erected in Te Awamutu.

Unfortunately, added the speaker, there was, under the prevailing conditions of licensing, not much inducement to put a large sum of money into providing hotel accommodation on the scale in which it had been provided in Te Awamutu. The licensing laws made it possible for values to be depreciated almost to extinction by the people’s vote every three yeai s. Therefore proprietors of hotels must be imbued with confidence in its fullest sense to invest a large sum of money' under present-day' licensing legislation. The condition of some other hotels must be largely due to that particular fact. If there were better security of tenure he was confident that most hotels would be modernised, and thus be equipped to cater for the needs of the resident and travelling public. Recent voting on the licensing question had certainly given encouragement, and the provision of first-class hotels would induce people to come to New Zealand to see all parts of the beautiful and attractive country and its people. It was the duty of all to foster that traffic, and, with a continuation of hotel licensing, that would be accomplished-

The chairman said he quite agreed that there was need for revision of the licensing laws, which were out of date in many respects. The matter of affording better security of tenure was a point. Owners of hotel property’ were required to provide a reasonable standard of accommodation for the public, but they could hardly be expected to authorise heavy expenditure with the chance of having their hotels closed every' three years. Reform was long overdue. Members of the Licensing Committee expressed their full accord.