Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 14 July 1904, Page 7

Traveller.

0. —__ . CURIOUS HOSTELBIES. WHERE in the ' vicinity of *kfejk) Peaceful Peckbam ia a public SbSK house at which those inclined to embonpoint, be they ever so abstemious, are neves off the 'blacklist' Bury St. Edmunds is credited' with the possession of a licensed house at which for many years not a drop of the waters that are strong has ever been Bold ■ but it is not due to any temperate principle that the bar of Peckham's pride is closed to the members of the EBglish equivalent of the Parisian fat man's olub. The explanation of the phenomenon lies simply and solely in the fact that the frontage measures little more than six feet in width, and the door is narrow in proportion. Notwithstanding the possession of this house of call, and a city tavern.that serves but one glass of maltsd liquor to each customer, except in the event of his returning at an appreciable interval more or less disguised, but not in liquor, Great Britain is sadly lacking in hostelries that are odd. Twenty-one years or so ago the cognoscenti of the Port of Liverpool were cheerfully predicting that the then new liner, the Alaska, would leave the estuary of the Mersey one day never to return. The liner, it was said, was too narrow in proportion to her length, and her general stability was such that if nicely poised fore and aft on the Atlantic billows when they were running nautical mountains high, she would forthwith break her back and incontinently disappear, The beat part ot a quarter of a century elapsed, and the first of 'the ocean greyhounds'—(a phraeo registered Al at Lloyd's in 1882) -having had the honor in that year of knocking off ten hours from the previous Atlantic record, was still in existence until quite a recent date as the first work-

men's hotel of its kind. Purchased by the firm of Yiokers, Son And Maxim in 1809, the whilom Atlantic liner, instead of being broken up, was moored in the docks at Barrow as a floating home for abont 400 of the firm's workman That 00 excellent an idea &s a floating hotel should not be copied and adapted for lengthier parses was of oourse out of the question, and in 1901 two suoh schemes were promulgated by entrepreneurs operating as far apart as New York, a city, that has recently been endowed with a 'one cent' restaurant, and the Adriatic, The latter scheme differed from the former insomuch as the American idea adapted an ordinary steamer to the requirements of a floating hotel, while the Austrian proposition took theshhpe of a houae-bo&t hotel that was to contain sufficient accommodation for one hundred visitors, who were from time to time to be treated to a sea voyage in the Adriatic Mr John Arbnckle's plan was even more enterprising. Taking in hand an old three-m&Bted, ship-rigged, converted petroleum packet boat, being the cognomen of ' John A. _StMnler,' he built upon it a practically new superstructure, with the result that accommodation for 260 persons was provided. • The scheme, however, did not end here, for the enterprising proprietor arranged that when the sweltering hot weather made New York unbearable the vessel sfconld sail nightly to Bandy Hook, anchor there till morning, and then return to the oity in time for the opening of business. At present the most northerly hotel in the world iB situated in Advent Bay, about 500 miles nearer the pole than Hammerfest. This 'Tourist Hythen,' which possesses thirty beds and a season lasting from 10th July to 18 bh August, in the event of Mr Arbuckle advertising pleasant Polar picnics for barboiled Phtladelphiana in his floating hotel, will probably loss a considerable amount of custom, notwithstanding the fact that it possesses a post cffica of its own. In California, on the road between Santa Oruz and San Joae, the tree hotel has flourished like a green bay, or, per*.. hap?, it would be more accurate to say, 'like a redwood monarch of the big tree brand. 5 The hollowed trunk of one of these gianfca of the forest iB used; as a reception room, having a circumference of twenty-two yards, and immediate surroundings with their roof of thick foliage sorve as dining and smoking rooms, and other hollowed trees have beenadapted to the requirements of bedrooms,