THE CITY HOTELS,

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14833, 26 November 1913, Page 10

THE CITY HOTELS,

DEPUTATION TO THE MA YOU. $M - A from ' .the- licenwd ||| Victuallers* Association consisting;" Messrs J. T. Sutton. (President), T.!s|l Cloudesley,' W. J. Mitchell,-v<! F. : Drewitt, and E. Norfion (apcretary),a||| waited on the Mayor of : yesterday: relative to a - proposal...'tl*tjl|| the hotel bars eho'uld be closed the strike trouble; " . ' '.■""^^i'§§ Mr SuttoniSsaid that .the ere viewed with alarm a request .mjw»|p| by a certain eection of the taat the hotels should be closed.- THe|s|g felt that nothing had happened .*OS| warrant such a request being niAdtig|| and submitted that when tho MayorSi received the request he would (jive. M"*p|s| matter serious consideration with du^ffl r | regard to the people at present €B KSi ployed in the occupation of- hoWr;p|| keeping.' -'■ ~ • ■' "' •' v■ - Mr X.' Nordon said that should <**i|| casioij .arise, the Mayor would find the ?yj| licensed victuallers ready at , '.*-v;jn»£l|& ment's notice to give him every eible assistance in the 'maintenance '■*»?>£s& law and order. They asked the not to be influenced by the 'sectwir '■&%s& the community who wanttd the ;liote»vjS closed. Those people might, bo vxa.-,/m ated by the best of intentions, wit>;« there was no justification "tor ■, i the demands that " the.-, -">*«» I should ■- be closed.. -. As/ far :■■.. the workers were concerned there no law which compelled them- to enter an hotel, and it seemed to be-a on tho working class of tbe^i were as law-abiding as f»y; to say that the hotels-should be Wg&m on their account. So far there been an utter absence o* Christchurch, - and he believed 'JVi-m ' state of affairs would- continue the unfortunato strike were To show the sobriety of the fity atdM MM present juncture, Mr Gordon M™&m the arrests for drunkenness dunng ■•W.vM past few days as Allows :-J»ovembW : |& 17th, 3; November 18th, 0; £°™o*£flt 19th November 20th. 0; 21st, 3: November 22nd, 1; vember 24tTi, 5. The licensed ;« c t lers, he continued, were big and to close the hotels would serious loss to them. . Every keeper, at the present time, was;w*^w

•Ec the greatest care to see that no tStfjsire drinking took place. •The -Mayor, in reply, said he approcith»» expressions of loyalty extended ♦nhim in tb' , v <* rv difficult position in «hich ho round himself placed at the. ■*S«nt. time. He had no desire to inSLt nnv hardship on any class of the fSmunity. His duty to the JkeWl victuallers was quite ts much a* to any other section :If tho community. He had kept his «rs open during C.-vrnival W«k and ffnw and bad not seen anything to : tustifv him in n.sking the chairman of ihc licensing Committee to close the ■'•■■ VBt«ls' H e sincerely hoped .that tho Welkeepers. in the interest* of law end ordor, would assist tho authorities f" <>ren- possible way. If they did J? t a ' n( j prevented drunkenness he ' \*mx*l *he trouble would pass over withZt hariuji to take the drastic step of Sing tho hotels. He. would only do :!.,■« a iast resource in the interests ' ; law and order. H© had received franv request* to hare the hotels closed. Tliose at -Lyttelton were closed, and MtT he feared was that a number of ZT m would come through to ChristSnirrh and unless a strict watch were >Xt trouble might follow. He would *k the hotelkecpers to be exceedingly ireful to see that no one got more Honor-than was good for them. It «ooU be better for the hotclkeepers "Jio <lo a restricted trade until the crisis Was over than to have the places closed altogether. Ho felt ho could rely on tho hotftlkeepers to keep law and order At present he would not feel, justified in asking the chairman, of the Licensing Committee .to close tho holds, although he could not give a promise that the hotels would not be Mr Putton thanked the Mayor for his reply, and said that the deputation could safely leave the matter in his Worship's hands, feeling that he would not be prompted by any interests other than thoJe ot tho community as a irhole.