ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 272, 25 February 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[We are at all times ready to give expression to every shade of opinion, but in no case do we hold ourselves responsible for the sentiments of our correspondents.] WAGSTAFF'S HOTEL. * To the Editor of the Akaroa Mail. Sir, —As the promoter of a petition against the granting of a bar license to WagstafE's Hotel, I will, with your kind permission, give ray reasons for the course taken. First, I may say that it is much to be regretted that the hotel with such pleasant grounds should be shut up,' and, as your correspondent " Visitor" says.some pecuniary loss to the Borough ia possibly entailed thoreby. The hotel had a good trial for some years, and failed, owing to the difficulties attending passenger communication bet\veen here and the Plains. For a long time it was tried as a boarding hotel, but the Jate proprietor finding it difficult to make both ends meet, obtained a bar license, and even then the establishment faifed to pay. The comfort of boarders, moreover, was certainly hot increased by the latter 3tep,as complaints were made regarding the bar traffic It is with this experience before U3 that I think it undesirable the hotel should be granted a bat license, as it is evident that, since communication with the Plains has npt improved, the establishment . cift -Only be made to pay by the pushing/of .a bar traffic. There is no liketihdpd ii of' li s(> extensive an establishment paying*, until the railway coiiies. for although." Visitor" informs us that he has "been an animal visitor for spme time past, be must remember; that it requires , a constant succession to make such a place pay, and this it certainly will not get. Again, the summer is, just over, so that no visitors, or certainly but very few, may bo looked for for the next six months. The Borough contains already four hotels, being one, to every twenty-six. inhabited houses, or one to every one hundred and fifty persons, children included. It will be said that hotels .., are chiefly for the convenience ■of people ■ living in out-districts, which is true ; and the present hotels afford ample accommodation for such. The bars, however, are a.constant diain upon, and temptation to, the residents in their vicinity, and it is to be hoped their number will not be increased.

In conclusion, I shall be very glad to see Wagataff's opened as a boarding hotel, out if it cannot be opened without, the accompaniment of a bar license, by all means let it remain closed. Yours, &c, „ . W. H. HENNING. Akaroa, Feb. 24.