HOTELS IN NELSON.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2140, 4 January 1881, Page 3

HOTELS IN NELSON.

A recent traveller in the Nelson country districts drew a by no means flattering picture of certain wayside hoetelries, in which dirt, neglect, and general discomfort were the predominating features. These peculiarities evidently extend to other places of local public resort. The “Nelson Mail” thus describes one example:—"Of all the public buildings in which it has been our lot to spend an hour or two, commend us to that which rejoices in the name of the Biohmond Agricultural Hall. After climbing up a very dirty staircase, the visitor finds himself in a dark, dreary, dingy apartment, with a couple of tin chandeliers, which hare every right to be classed among the “ old settlers ” of the province, hanging from a very dusty roof much patronised by spiders. From each chandelier a couple of candles cast a ‘ dim religious light ’ around, which enables us to inspect and admire the architecture and arrangements of Biehmond’s noble public hall. You must step carefully, because the floor whereon you stand is ‘holey’ ground, and there is no knowing how many more apertures an incautiously heavy tread might create. First, a word as to the arrangements for ventilation. We once heard a little child describe a wedding ring as a hole with a bit of gold round it. A somewhat similar description would convey a correct idea of the windows of this chaste and elegant hall, A hole with a bit of wood round it would aptly describe the place where one of the windows once was, but from which it has now disappeared for ever. The remainder of the windows consist of a series of holes with bits of wood or iron, as the case may be, round them. At one end of the room a number of boards placed on trestles form the platform. Behind this _ a filthy old black board, also perched on a pair of trestles, does duty for a reporter’s table. A brand new tin candlestick, which glistens and shimmers as it is carried under the two candle-power chandeliers, is brought in for the reporters, but, as they prefer two candles, they chop in half the one supplied to them, sticking a portion on the table by the adhesiveness of its own grease. The reporters, so to speak, are sitting at right angles to the speaker, who has his back turned to them, and while into one ear there flow the words of wisdom, the other is penetrated by the zephyrs that softly breathe through the apertures in the walls where the windows used to be. There must be no applause, lest the enthusiastic electors should disappear through the rotten floor into the room below, nor must there bo much shuffling of feet, for the floor is so thickly strewed with broken glass and dirt that the noise made would bo intolerably irritating to all present.”