FRANZ JOSEF HOTEL

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28513, 17 February 1958, Page 12

FRANZ JOSEF HOTEL

Lack Of Progress Criticised There was a feeling of injustice on the West Coast over the delay of nearly four years in rebuilding the Franz Josef Hotel, Mr Mark Wallace, a member of the Westland County Council, told I a meeting of the executive of the' South Island Local Bodies’ Association in Christchurch. The meeting agreed to ask the Minister in Charge of Tourist and Health Resorts (Mr Mathi- ! son) to have the work completed as soon as possible. “There have been recent statements in the newspapers that the final design for the building has been approved, but they’ve been telling us that for four years,” Mr Wallace said. “At the present rate of progress it will be many months before work begins on the building, as the designs have to be forwarded to the architects, specifications and plans drawn up and tenders called.” Hermitage Rebuilding

In less than six months the replacement of the Hermitage was well under way, said Mr Wallace. While not decrying the speed with which the plans for the replacement of the Hermitage had been pushed ahead, he said that the long delay in rebuilding the Franz Josef Hotel was neither fair to the West Coast nor to the South Island as a whole. It was a vital link in the chain of South Island tourist hotels and would assume an even greater importance when the Haast Pass road was completed. Mr E. C. Bathurst (Ashburton) said he deplored the action of the department in placing the rebuilding of the Hermitage before that of the Franz Josef Hotel. If the department had gone ahead with the plans in a reasonable manner, “the building would have been completed before the Hermitage had been burnt down.” When a member said that some of the delay was caused by a dispute over the site of the new hotel, Mr Wallace explained that a small village of persons, dependent for their livelihood on the hotel, had grown up around ,the previous site. Naturally there had been protests when the Government had decided to site the new hotel about a mile away, but the dispute had been settled a long time ago. Because of the delays and changes of plans the stage had been reached were many persons on the West Coast believed that the hotel would never be rebuilt, said Mr Wallace.

On a recent visit to Greymouth he had been told that many tourists got as far as there and were unable to visit 0 the glaciers because of the lack of accommodation, said Mr S. Harris (Temuka). This was doing serious harm to the New Zealand tourist trade.