Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] THURSDAY, SEPT. 15, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4219, 15 September 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

THURSDAY, SEPT. 15, 1892.

being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, .with which it is IDENTICAL..

Whatever have the boarding and lodging-house keepers of New Zealand done that Mr Seddon should bring in a Bill to worry them ? Their lines do not usually fall in pleasant places and their responsibilities are by no means light, but still as far as ve are able to judge they constitute an orderly, useful olass of people who conduct their businesses to the satisfaction of the community. Still tho Hon, Mr Seddon has said the word and they are to bo registered and to be made to pay fees, They have to produce certificates of character, to be by-lawed, to. be subjected to penalties, and to make returns,

Like the rest of tbis kind of legislation the Bill is exceedingly amusing and does not require to be trumped by a " Washers and Manglers" burlesque. Any house where three or more persons sleep and pay hire for their beds becomes at once a "Boarding and Lodging-House" under the Act and has to go through the process of registration 'and inspection. On and after the first of October an establishment like the Wellington College would oome under the measure and its Principal might be summoned for non-registration, while a vigilant constable would have the right to go through the dormitories and demand a certificate of good ohoraoter from Mr Firth, Or supposing a country lady with a couple of children made a protracted visit to a Wellington lady friend and compensated her for the accommodation she received, the law would be broken unless the premises were forthwith registered, inspected, and yisited. If legislation were required for lodging houses the Act should go a little further I The Hon. Mr Seddon represents a mining district where there are many boarders. Some of them lodge in tents, but even these are included in his Bill. A miner, after a hard day's work, is not infrequently an uncleanly individual. It is in the nature of his avocation that he should accumulate on his person a considerable amount of soil, and in his case the boarding house-keepers might retaliate by claiming that the boarders dirtied the house, and not the house the boarders; therefore, in'the interests of their establishments they should be protected by the Inspecting Officer inoldding the boarders in his periodical visit, that he should have a keen eye for human parasites and a trustworthy nasal organ, The lodging house-keepers have as much right to demand from the State clean hoarders, as the boarders have to require oloan houses. The thing should be made fair all round or left alone, We have not the slightest doubt that boarding housekeepers and lodgers settle all little questions about accommodation to their mutual satisfaction, and really require no intervention on the part of Inspectors, Justice of the Peace and constables, unless it be a few legislative boarders in the Empire City, who are said to want first-class lodgings at third-class rates, Is Mr Seddon legislating for their benefit or are there a thousand hargers on of the Government who must be appointed to billets of some kind or another, Every measure of this character would no doubt find occupation for a good many of them, and by the time this kind of meddling and muddling legislation is played out, every other man in tho Colony will be an inspector, or a deputy inspector, or a collector of fees. If Ministers really desire to benefit lodgers they could do more good by a gratuitous distribution of insecticides than by bringing into existence the pains and penalties, the fees and fines embodied in the BoardingandLodgint!House Bill, Why does not the Hon. Mr Seddon set up a Committee of the House on insecticides, He would have no difficulty in finding members of his own party competent to serve on it and it would probably be unnecessary for them to collect evidehce,