GERALDINE HOTELS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13637, 3 July 1908, Page 2

GERALDINE HOTELS.

(To the-Editor of the .'.". Timaru Herald.") surprise and a ' certain - amount' of "reeeritment. have .been-oc-casioned by the police report, on the hotels of Geraldine,,.and tne remarks of the chairman of the licensing,.: .committee thereon. The policeman reported that the management of the Geraldine hoteljs was •" fair," which; he said iineaht " not quite up to. the mark." If the management of a hoteljs not .quite.;, up .to tha mark then reasons should be given for the adverse 'report;>; instances -of .badmanagement should be brought forward so that the landlord might know in what respect he .failed; to. gain the approbation of the "inspecting officer. It is unfair to damage thei-.'reputation of a public institution by, merely .-: remarking in U general' way that i't -is not quit* up to the mark, without Baying or wherefore, and it seems - particulariy hard on the hotelkeepers- now- that th& .general election '■•- is. apprqaehing, the question of license or no-licehse''is to be decided at the poll; •• / - An instance of this unfairness was reported in the papers the other day, when a hotelkeeper was refused a license oh account of an adverse" report like < that of the Geraldine constable, in which no reason was given. The judge'of the Supreme Court promptly decided that the applicant for the.license should be. told why his application hid been refused, and issued a "mandamus"to that effect. He also remarked that the withholding of reasons for the. decision of the Magistrate seemed to give the idea, that back stairsinfluence or secret. prejudice had ■';- something to do with the" matter.. It ceiv tainly looks like-a sort of Star Chamber proceeding when a person "is deprived of his living by a decision of that kind.

' I hold norbnef for hotelkeepers,, but I have stopped .often in Geraldme and I have ahv.avs' found the accommodation equal.to that of any : other country town of .the same size anywhere. .',l d6aiot know, all the hotels' in • Gef aldine, but where, I Stop J find everything, as 1 say, and' all of myVatquaintances: wJvb patronise this hotel are of the same opinion aii mvself. It is therefore incorrect to describe the. hotels of Geraldine as mere grog-shops, where good accommodation is not given to travellers'. . and residents. When the Geraldine policeman' reports' that lie finds disorderly ; characters about certain hotels he proclaims his own incapacity to maintain police order. Is it'not the duty of the policeman to keep the streets and corners clear of loafers and undesirable characters? No one.. ' objects'"to idlers round his place more' than the hotelkeeper himself. If the constable were to take up as much of his time and ' attention in looking after suspicious characters as he does in trj'ihg to find fault with hotelkeepers who discharge a public duty and supply a public wanl t things would go on better in Gera'.dine than they do. ; Time and again houses and shops have. been burnt down in Geraldine,' under the nose of the officer 1n charge, and nothing has ever been fpundout as to the cause of these con- ' flagrations. It would seem as if we had got hold of a prohibitionist policeman who has got but ohe> idea in his head, viz.,, to condemn, all- hotels:—-I. am, etc., : 'VIATOR.