On the Condition of Merano as a Health Resort: A Reply to Public Complaints

Austrian Monarchy.

Merano, 8 Oct. (Submitted.) From time to time, voices are raised regarding Merano as a health resort that strike the eardrums of us Merano residents too harshly for us not to offer a word in our defence. Allow, therefore, a so-called thoroughbred Meranese of the finest stock to say a few words in defence of his fellow citizens.

I largely acknowledge the truth of the accusations made by your correspondent S?, yet I would like the greater or lesser weight thereof, which may be laid upon us Merano residents, to be properly weighed. The citizens of Merano are well-off, but the municipal fund is far too modest in relation to the communal expenditures; for we are still bleeding from the wounds inflicted upon us for our patriotism during the war years, even though the citizen is burdened with high communal taxes unlike almost any other small town in Tyrol. Hence it came about that every motion to allocate funds from the municipal coffers for the promotion of the spa resort met, and continues to meet, with the strongest resistance. In addition, very many and precisely the wealthy citizens not engaged in trade suffer only disadvantages from the increasing influx of spa guests and the resulting rise in the cost of lodgings and provisions. That is simply how it is. Amor incipit ab Ego! –

Let us now examine more closely the frequently heard complaints. People complain about the shortage of lodgings and their high price; and they cannot wonder enough at our dullness in not erecting new buildings with comfortable furnishings. I reply: within the town itself, as long as the “Lend” remains a municipal timber yard, suitable building plots are practically non-existent; building itself is more costly than elsewhere owing to the high prices of timber, bricks, transport, and wages; moreover, the property owner is heavily taxed.

This also explains the high cost of housing, driven even higher by the rising influx of spa guests, the growing local population, the increased civil service, the swelling number of students, and the growing commercial class. Merano finds itself in a transitional period! – The more construction yields a return, the sooner it may be expected that stately new buildings with pleasant little gardens will arise on the “Lend” instead of timber stacks. Come forward, you capitalists who carry your money to foreign factories, come and help us build houses! We lack available financial means, capital! –

Not infrequently does one hear complaints about the scarcity and high price of foodstuffs – and rightly so; the local citizen feels this best of all, and most painfully the poor man. “Merano is an expensive town!” Why? Because of limited competition and the lack of means of communication. We have no flatlands and no railways to fetch provisions from distant localities in a couple of hours.

That finer vegetables are lacking here is due to our climate being too hot for vegetable cultivation. Vegetables do not thrive unless extraordinary labour, which is not rewarded, is expended upon them. In addition, land, fertilizer, and labour are expensive.

Yet it will improve. Competition will certainly increase once the farmer realizes he can sell his produce at a handsome price. The mortals clad in loden shirts are not as unwise in monetary matters as many a correspondent thinks. Once the farmer realizes where the pennies come from, he will turn his attention to it; and if it is not the farmer, speculators will surely bring goods to market. Soon fish from the Vinschgau and Puster Valley will travel to us on carts, as soon as it is heard that a pound of trout fetches one Gulden Conv.-Münze in Merano.

It is complained: “The town streets are unclean, and the paths of the surroundings neglected!” True! – but let it be considered that the surrounding paths are village-communal roads, and the town citizenry has nothing to do with them. As long as the heads of the neighbouring communities and the influential farmers have no sense and therefore no money for improving the paths, there is nothing to hope for. It would be desirable for the political authorities to exert their influence most emphatically.

Yet one thing the town citizenry could do, namely: employ one or two street sweepers in the town who, at least during the season, would clean the streets of filth twice daily and sprinkle them with water. This is the sole and simplest means of remedying the matter without annoying individual citizens through municipal police regulations.

As for the cuisine of the inns, there may well be much to fault; yet one cannot deny the proprietors of the inns “zum Erzherzog Johann” and “zum Grafen von Meran” the best intentions to accommodate the guests' wishes as far as possible. These honourable men feel quite well themselves where shortcomings lie, and seek to improve their establishments with each passing year. Thus the former has in the past year expended substantial capital to furnish his inn more comfortably, expand it, and establish a café with billiards, making the greatest efforts to remedy complaints about the kitchen. Serving over a hundred, often two hundred guests daily at the dinner table is a difficult task in a small country town; and anyone who thinks fairly will show forbearance if everything does not turn out as desired.

In conclusion, allow a word in vindication of the visitors' committee. At the repeated request of spa guests, several honourable men, foremost among them Burgomaster Haller, joined forces to collect funds from the spa guests through the introduction of a visitor tax, employing them with the utmost integrity and discernment solely for the benefit of the spa guests. I believe this undertaking deserves only praise and support; yet there are minds that think otherwise, and among other incidents the case occurred where “a baron” stubbornly refused to pay one Gulden! as visitor tax. No less blameworthy is the fact that waiters in the premier inns, by giving inaccurate statements regarding the guests' length of stay, deprive the fund of substantial sums. It would be desirable in the interest of the health resort for innkeepers to require their waiters to be more precise in this regard and not impede the committee in its work. – A resident of Merano.