HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 261, 25 July 1895, Page 9

HERE AND THERE.

“ Mr P. T. Spillane who was formerly wellknown as a hotelkeeper in AVellington, and who was lately mine host of the Martinborough Hotel in this district, has secured the Provincial Hotel in Napier, where we have no doubt his many excellent qualities will secure him a large circle of patronage. His hotels have always been conducted in a first-class manner, and under his regime the Provincial will take a big 1 place amongst the- hotels of Napier. He carries with him from this district the best wishes of many warm friends.” I publish the above from the Wair arap a Standard, and would supplement the remarks of a contemporary by adding that Mr Spillane has already made himself popular in Napier. He has renovated the Provincial Hotel and placed it on a par with some of the best known hotels in Napier.

Napier, although generally spoken of as a pretty little place, could better be described, if one takes into consideration its area and population, as a pretty big place. Pretty it undoubtedly is, with beautiful marine parade, picturesque heights, and long straight streets. There is one avenue, only too brief in extent, near the railway station, bordered on either side with beautiful trees that rise to a great height, the effect . reminding one of one of the boulevards or drives in the Old Country. As we have mentioned before, although there are some eighteen public houses in the City proper, I have never seen in any town in the Colony hotels so unanimously well Conducted. A drunken man ’ even during race times is rarely seen on the public streets, and I have had an opportunity of judging, as there has been a plethora of race meetings in the Hawke’s Bay district lately. Everybody seems to know everybody else and attends to his respective business or pleasure without interfering with Other people’s privileges. Although there is no atmosphere of futile speculation, there is an air of solidity and unostentatious wealth about the place that argues well for the district.- The winter season is perhaps the dullest time during the year, and a revival of trade invariably sets in towards spring.