[Advt.] THE CLOSING.OF THE ROYAL HOTEL.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1371, 14 April 1881, Page 3

[Advt.] THE CLOSING. OF THE ROYAL HOTEL.

Record. Affairs in hotel getting from bad to worse, Ryan, Bell, and Co., and self thinking that we had ill-treated him a a good deal more than we ought to have done, it was arranged thaj-the rent[should be paid weekly, ! * and beef, cash ' ; oh delivery. Out of thirteen weeks, I paid one week's rent, credited as having been paid by Captain Dawson, the balance by Ryan, Bell, ,and Co M who also- oaid the Erevio'us 4 uar * cr * s ren *- There is also a alance of £9 8s 9d during the time that beer was to bl paid' for on delivery, for which I was confiding enough to take his word of honour that it would be paid for on Saturday, or some other stated day, if I would send it, up ; this is still owing, v I .have ''written and -Broken to Captain Dawson in a friendly way about keeping up two establishments, advising him that in every way, as things were going, to curtail expenses. That unless h6 did so, there was no earthly possibility of his being able to meet his Engagements, that in justice to his creditors he ought in every possible way to economise,' I need not say my" advice was not acted upon. I letting him get into my books to nearly £500 is Miltreatment, I must plead guilty, there is a bill of sale over household effects, covering a portion of this amount, about which I have repeatedly written during the last four or five months and urged him to try to get some one to advance the money and take it over, as I wanted the money, I have several times threatened to realize if he did not do something! plenty of promises, and. begging me to.lej; it stand over till so and so, ; it on till Saturday 1 morning, 3 when he politely informed me that I could do my d dst he had not slept in the hotel for the last ' thirty days, he would have the license cancelled and the house closed. The following copied from letter received from W. Macgregor Hay is a very mild' request, and requires no comment. "I have just had « long interview with Captain Dawson, and the only terms he will make with you are that you give him a clean receipt for the bill of sale debt, an 1 a full apology for correspondence in Free Lance (va. return he will assist you to retain license. I think he intends to l.ty an information to day., &c." Information was duly laid against himself, and the hotel in due course closed. After which I put a baliff in his house under bill of sale. The frame™ of the Act could not have imagined that a contingency of this sort was likely to arise, or provisions would have been made for it ; at ihe law stands at present there is little security for money invested in this kind of property, if an unscrupulous ,or spiteful man happens to have a license, he has only to lay an information that he has not slept on the premises for thirty days. This. I believe, is the first instance oi record. The informer, if he looks upon his action with any feeling of pride, i$ ■ welcome to his brief satisfaction ; although 'he can do those things with impunity, there are certain 1 friends who Became bond that he would conform with all conditions of lease, if I took him as' a tenant, who, I believe, are still liable for his actions, so far as this business is concorned. I have scarcely mot with a case of greater ingratitude, after Ryan Bell and Co., and self, with a- little assistance from others, virtually keeping the iamily for nearly five years in Very fair style, and entertaining their friends! sometimes ge>ing short ourselves, that they should want for nothing, and the first opportunity that offers this is returned by doing the greatest possible injury, and apparently lying in wait for the time to elapse. While he was in the hotel, and without wanting to appear officious, I always gave < him the" benefit "of myexperience when I thought it would be acceptable, and in other ways stood his friend, \ cry much to my own loss, as .it now turns out. /So much for honor. Mr Burke was in the hotel before Captain Dawson. The latter's average monthly beer account is onefourth more than the former's, for a corresponding period of three years (term of Burkes lease),- from "whom 1 never Uad to take a bill, and he left the house with a good round sum to the good. They both started with about the same amount of capital, but they finished very differently. The late tenant ought to have been satisfied with the injury done in running the establishment so fine in his latter days (so far as choice of liquor was concerned) without taking a parting kick at a place in which he might havejmade' money. "If he did not, the version of the affair, as it appears in the Mail, is simply absurd — "Dawson, the responsible' party, andun-, willing to continue such responsibility, " &c. Newspaper correspondents ought to take more trouble, especially in serious matters, in obtaining correct information. Dawson, before taking the responsibility, had a written document from me indemnifying him in case of anything happening wherein the licensee would be responsible. He at the same time gob advice gratis that it would be necessary to sleep on the premises one night in each month, on which he appears to have acted with a vengeance. The whole matter simply amounts to this, that I wanted a little of the money owing to me. If I did not make a present of this, and apologise for" I "don't know what,' this paragon of all that is honorable would lay all information and close the house, in -which for once he has been successful. — I am, &c, Wju. Gumming. ,