HOTELS AND HOTELKEEPERS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 131, 3 December 1873, Page 3

HOTELS AND HOTELKEEPERS.

TO THE EDIXOH. tsiit,— -I have frequently wished to give my ideas upon the subject of hotels and their teeners, because I consider it of vita! importance to ‘anv community, whether largo or small. X have observed both upon the Australian and Now Zealand goldfields, as well as in the agricultural districts, that little or no notice is taken aa to the o’puttttion and character of persona who obtain and are suffered to bold publicans’ licenses. Tho tuny qualifications at present appear to bo a furnished house with a certain number of rooms, together with the necessary cash for payment of the license fee. I opine that the only proper persona to conduct hotels should bo 'those of unblemished character, high principles, intelligence, and fair average education. The people they have to deal with are made up of all grades of society ; therefore the hotelkeepers should bs able to converse with and entertain the educated and well conducted, besides having sufficient moral influence over the lawless and turbulent, so as, if necessary, to put a check upon their evil passions and attempts at disorder. They (the publics m) should be men who notonly wishto better themselves by doing a bona Jldc hotel business, but who take a pleasure in contributing towards the comfort and welfare of their customers. They should be above each wicked practices as that of selling spurious, filthy, and poisonous liquors ; and such who would not—regardless of the lives of their fellow-creatures— endeavour to make a profit of 53d out of every fid they receive over the counter. I have been acquainted with hotelkeepers who made it their boast that, with cheap inferior spirit, orspiritsofwino for a “ foundation,’* they could, with an admixture of certain deleterious drugs and colouring matter, &0., turn out gin, rum, or brandy ad libitum, and at a mere nominal coat. X have called at hotels where the {andlordabareetarod aghast when asked to prepare a meal if a little before or after the fixed hours, and j who appeared to regard the perpetual imbibing of vile liquids to be the normal condition of man* kind. If asked for Hennessy’s XML, Tennant's or Rasa s ale, or any other good brands, they would endeavour to pulm off the most villainous compounds, and with all the effrontery possible assort them to be M the genuine article ’* —in some instances, no doubt, through sheer ignorance, but in others through downright rascality, I can truthfully state, after many years experience in the colonics, that three-fourths of the large number of lunatics who crowd the asylums and gaols, were rendered raving madmen by unconsciously drinking bud spirits. It is, moreover, dreadful to think over the hundreds or thousands that met with untimely deaths through drowning, tumbling over precipices, falls from horses, exposure to weather, and in various other ways, the real cause ot such accidents having been had, spirits, taken not only by men who have been inveterate topers, but by those who have indulged a little at times , and who have been suddenly ovorcotne by the potency of the poison they have unwittingly swallowed. The class of men who keep hotels are in many instances those who, from various causes, desire to make money in theshorteafc possible space of time, and such men act regardleM of the health or well-being of society. They only think of their “ bar trade and so long that they meet with customers having money to spend they supply them with liquor, even if the poor infatuated creatures lie down to drink, and are barely able to carry, with their nervous trembling hands, the death-dealing glass to their lips. That these things are allowed to exist there is no doubt, and that the character of publicans should bemost carefully inquired into previous to a license being granted, and the conduct and management of their hotels afterwards quarterly or monthly reported upon to and by the proper authorities,, I will endeavour amongst other matters connected with “ Hotels and Hotelkeeper* ” to demonstrate, if, Mr X.rlitor, you consider the matter of sufficient importance to grant mo space, in a future issue of your paper.—l am, Ac., dra Diaosa,