The Globe. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 214, 15 February 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1875.

Hotelkeepers in Christchurch and Lyttelton, more particularly in the latter place, must be doing a remarkably good trade just at the present time. Judging from the difficulty of obtaining accommodation for a night at any of the very numerous hotels which stud the town of Lyttelton, the proprietors or lessees of these houses must be iu the enjoyment of an amount of custom which must be most satisfactory to them. Any stranger landing in the Port for the first time is astonished at the number of licensed houses which appear in most of the streets, and his astonishment is greatly increased when, on attempting to obtain a bed for the night, he is met by the answer, “ Pull,” “obliged to make shake “ downs for some of our customers,” and other replies to the same effect. He has to wander, in many instances, from publichouse to publichouse, lucky if he at length can obtain the modest requirements of a chance traveller. This is no exaggerated or overdrawn account, and only on last Saturday night a gentleman wellknown in Christchurch, who had the misfortune to miss the last train from Lyttelton, was obliged to knock up a friend in Port, and throw himself on his hospitality, after vainly trying to obtain accommodation at most of the hotels in the town. Such cases as these are more frequent than most ersons living in the province are aware of. These unpleasant accidents happen more often to strangers who are juat visiting the province than to

residents in Canterbury for any length of time. The consequence is that the unfortunate traveller who has not the inclination or opportunity to make his grievance known, finds some sort of accommodation, after repeated efforts, and goes on his w r ay the morning afterwards a wiser, and a sadder man. The plain fact of the matter is that hotelkeepers do not care for chance customers in the shape of travellers whose stay is only for a short time. There is not profit enough attached to the supplying the wants of these persons, and consequently the publican will not unless he is obliged, find accommodation for them. The profit arising from the sale of spirituous drinks is large, and certain, and does not demand the keeping of the staff of servants which is necessary if the accommodation of travellers is properly looked after. The publican will provide the number of bedrooms which he is required by the Act to have on his premises, but he will do no more; and we have no doubt that in many cases an answer of “ full” is returned to many chance customers, when the real fact is that there are, at the very moment of the answer being given, ample means of obliging the applicant. That the supervision of the licensed houses in Lyttelton and Christchurch is carried out to the best of the ability of the authorities we believe, but it is notorious that what we have stated is true, and therefore the supervision must be faulty in some way or other. The publican manages to find a loop hole of escape somehow or other, and does not suffer as he should do from bis not complying with the spirit, though he may do to the letter, of the Act. A little wholesome exposure would do some of these well to do hotel-keepers a great deal of good, and we live in hopes that this may be effected through the medium of the correspondence columns of the press of the province, which are always open to those who are aggrieved by the action of any section of the community.