HOTELS CLOSED TO PUBLIC

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 258, 30 July 1942, Page 4

HOTELS CLOSED TO PUBLIC

Four Licences Suspended During War The licences of four hotels iii the Dominion have 'been suspended owing to war conditions, said the secretary of the National Council of the Licensed Trade of New Zealand, Mr. Coyle, yesterday in response to an inquiry about the closing of the Hotel Cecil in Wellington. The other hotels affected were the Grand Hotel and Hotel Cargen in Auckland, and the Wanaka Hotel. In no case had the licence been transferred or gone out of existence and no time limit had been set on the period during which the licences could be held without being operated, he added. First of the hotels to cease to eater for the travelling public was the Cargen, which was offered by Sir Ernest Davis to the Auckland Jlospital Board early in the war for use as a nurses’ home. Recently the Grand Hotel,"Auckland, and the Hotel Cecil, Wellington, had been taken over for service needs. To the general public, one of the first indications of a change in control of the latter was the spectacle of glasses and handles being loaded on to a track for transfer for continued utility elsewhere. Petrol restrictions and the curtailment of service cars was the reason for the suspension of the licence at Lake Wanaka, where the hotel relied almost entirely on tourist traffic, Mr. Coyle said. Many private hotels, in Ro'toru'a were now advertised, as “indefinitely booked, national service,’ but the four licensed hotels there were still catering for the general public.