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TIBOOBURRA
HOTEL
TO BE CLOSED.
Licensed For
50 Years.
The Licenses Reduction Board,
which sat at Tibooburra yesterday
approved of the surrender of the
licence of the Central Australian
Hotel, held by Leonard Ross Bottom.
At a subsequent sitting the board will
assess compensation.
Mr. J. W. Laidlaw (chairman) and
Messrs. T. W. Cohen and W. Geike
comprised the board. Mr. M. Austen
Brown appeared for the applicant.
There was only one objection, that
lodged by Mrs. A. McCawley, on sen-
timental grounds. She stated that
the hotel was the first in the district,
and that as it was the leading hotel
in the town it would be a retrograde
step to delicence it.
Mr. Bottom produced his lodgers'
book which showed that since he had
held the licence, only on one occasion
had the accommodation been fully
availed of. In his opinion no public
inconvenience would be caused by
the closing of the hotel.
POPULATION OF 600.
Constable McAvoy, who said that
the population of Tibooburra and dis-
trict was 600, stated that the police
had no objection to the surrender. The
public could be catered for by the
other hotels, although the Central
Australian did the best bar trade. The
licence fee payable was just under
£30, and that meant that liquor pur-
chases totalled about £600 a year.
William Thomas Thomson, a gra-
zier, of Mt. Stuart, who is the local
coroner and chairman of the Milpar-
inka Pastures Protection Board, and
is a native of Tibooburra, said, that he
did not now consider the hotel neces-
sary. The other hotels could cater
for the town, district, and travelling
public.
Mr. Thomson said that the hotel
was the first licensed in Tibooburra,
which was the oldest settled town in
the far west. Tibooburra was estab-
lished in 1881 or 1882, and the hotel
was licensed shortly after.
During the course of the evidence
the chairman of the board said that
it was quite clear that the other
two hotels would be ample to satisfy
the requirements. He pointed out
that many towns with populations
between 5000 and 6000 had only three
hotels.
At the conclusion of the evidence
the board announced that it approved
of the surrender. The board later in-
spected the other hotels in the town.
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