CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1921, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

HOTELS AND CHARGES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,— A burning topic of conversation among the travelling public to-day is the custom of many publicans in unfairly charging for meals which have never been partaken of. I specially refer to instances when hotel guests give notification that they will be absent for certain meals, yet when they settle their account prior to departure, find that no allowance ?s made. For instance, while staying at one of your leading hotels this week, I had occasion to visit Eltham and Waitara on three different days. Notification was given at rhe hotel that I was snaking these visits on the assumption that no charge would be made against me for meals which I was not partaking of at the hotel. However, no such luck. The publican of to-day, speaking generally (for there are a few decent exceptions), is not content with his extortionate tariff,’ unjustly charges that which is not his due, and then becomes extremely angl-y should you raise a quiet word in remonstrance. Such was my experience very recently in New Plymouth. When I settled my bill, it was i«t an early hour, as I was departing by the morning mail train, and the angry gentleman, possibly not fully awake, though he was arrayed in shirt, coat, and trousers, also forcibly and luridly remarked that all accounts should be settled overnight. Anyhow, what sublime Intelligence! Mr. Boniface was well aware of the fact that I departed at mid-day on the previous day for Waitara, and did not return until midnight. I wonder how he would have expressed himself had I awakened him from his .slumbers to pay my modest dues? Such treatment from hotelkeepers preaches prohibition far more effectively than all the oratory of the prohibtion forces, and when eventually, national prohibition comes to th>s country, the hotelkeeper will get it just «is strong from the travelling public as a "quid pro quo” as from, the prohibition party, and then slogan, “the curse of drink.” And, judging by the unseemly haste which many of the publicans to-day evince in “making hay while the sun shines,” it would almost appear that the day of national prohibition is not far distant. Whether a publican is legally entitled to make charges under the circumstances set out I cannot say, but should he be permitted by law to do so, then it is more than time that the law was amended to prevent such flagrant profiteering, or Imposition, call it what you will. The travelling public have been getting it in the neck too long without somebody raising to protest, hence ,ny modest cffort.-I am. etc., HopKINS .