THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1882. THE TRAMWAY TERMINUS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2459, 22 February 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1882. THE TRAMWAY TERMINUS.

Wk are glad to notice that the subject of the very dangerous method at present adopted of sotting down passengers from the tramcars in Cathedral square has come under the notice of the City Council at last. It has been so long looked upon with a kind of apathetic don’t-careishness on the part of the authorities as to lead to the conclusion that until an alderman was sacrificed no remedy would be suggested. The danger of the present indiscriminate discharge of passengers in the midst of a crowded and bustling thoroughfare, full of vehicles at all hours, need not be dilated on. The only wonder is that ere this a serious or fatal accident has not occurred, particularly in the case of ladies and children. Any one who has stood on the side-walk is Cathedral square when the trams have been discharging their passengers will, wo are sure, agree that it is high time some alteration was made in the present system. In speaking of this

matter we must not be understood as imputing blame to the Tramway Company. It ia no fault of theirs, but the public interest osAla loudly for some steps being taken fir providing a safe and commodious place for entering and leaving the cars. Wo still incline to the belief that the plan suggested in this Journal some time back would bo found to work well. That is to remove the present express stand from the street near the Bank of New Zealand, where to a certain extent it is a nuisance, and allow of the tram cars moving up to the pavement on each side, one baing for arrivals and the other for departures. The street itself is free from traffic, and the standing there of the cars would not, as in the case of the square, be an obstruction. It is quite as central a position, and whilst affording the much to be desired opportunity to persons using the tramway of leaving or entering the cars without the chance of being run over, it would also relieve the centre of the square of what ia now somewhat of a block to the traffic. As the subject is to bo discussed between the City Council and the Tramway Company, we make this suggestion as a remedy for the very great evil which now exists. HOUSELESS VISITORS.

At the meeting of the sports and entertainments committee of the forthcoming Exhibition, held yesterday, some wellfounded apprehension was expressed that the ordinary accommodation in Christchurch for the housing of visitors during the Exhibition months would be found to be totally inadequate. With these ideas we quite agree. Even now, during the normal state of things, it is exceedingly difficulty to procure accommodation at the hotels and elsewhere. The cause of this is not far to seek, and wo commend the matter t® the serious consideration of the new Licensing Committees, It is a well known fact that there exist in Christchurch hotels nominally complying with the Act by maintaining so many bedrooms, but which the proprietors, for reasons of their own, decline to allow to be used. This, we maintain, is nothing more nor less than a deliberate evasion of the law. The Legislature recognising the fact that hotels in the fullest sense of the word are public conveniences, without which it would be impossible to do in large centres of population, have protected the public interests by stipulating that it shall bo imperative on the person holding an hotel license to keep so many bedrooms. This provision was certainly not intended to mean that these rooms were to be furnished only to be looked at and never used. Tet this is the case in connection with more than one hotel in Christchurch and suburbs. It simply means this — that instead of a place for the accommodation of visitors, these houses are merely drinking bars under the more pretentious guise of hotels. Whilst this is prejudicial to the interests of the general public, it is also, we would desire to point out, unfair to those licensees who are subjected to heavy expenses by their loyally endeavoring to carry out the intentions of the Act. An hotel with ten or more bedroom constantly filled with visitors requires a large and expensive staff of servants, but the one with the same amount of rooms kept unoccupied from year to year is enabled to be worked with only as many servants as would be required in an ordinary private family. In view of the great dearth of accommodation likely to prevail during the Exhibition months, it becomes the absolute duty of the Licensing Committee to insist that the holders of hotel licenses shall comply with the spirit of the Act, and not only provide the accommodation prescribed, but allow of it being utilised. If they do not, then we think the course of the committee is clear. We have already enough and to spare of mere drinking shops, without, as we have pointed out, increasing their number under the fallacious name of hotels. If, therefore, those hotel-keepers who have persistently evaded the law continue to do so, they should be warned that their license will absolutely cease and determine. Once let the Licensing Committee make it known that, in view of the approaching influx of population, they are determined to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of the law, and we undertake to say that accommodation for two or three hundred persons more than is now available will be found in so-callod hotels. There is no hardship in the course we propose. The hotel-keepers apply for their license under certain well-known and clearly defined conditions, and wo think it is nothing short of monstrous that first-class hotels should be allowed to absolutely close their doors on the public except in the matter of mere bar drinking. It is certainly time some steps were taken to alter the present state of things, and we trust the Licensing Committee will take the matter in baud.