CRITICISM OF N.Z. HOTELS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28750, 22 November 1958, Page 14

CRITICISM OF N.Z. HOTELS

“Astonishing” Article

(New Zealand Press Association) ROTORUA, November 21.

“The criticism levelled by Mr W. D. Patterson at the New Zealand hotel industry astonished me, and I do not consider him competent to judge fully, as he stayed in only three hotels during his brief stay in New Zealand,” said the Minister in charge of Tourist and Health Resorts (Mr Mathison) at a meeting with the Rotorua Tourist League and other interested organisations in Rotorua today. Mr Patterson, who is associatepublisher of an American magazine, the “Saturday Review,” published a series of articles condemning New Zealand hotels. Mr Mathison said he did not hear Mr Patterson speak at the Chateau during the Travel and Holiday Association’s conference, but he had been astonished to read the article in a New Zealand paper. “It was most unfortunate that the article was reproduced,” he said. "I met Mr Patterson and introduced him to Mr Nash, and he was most complimentary then. We were shocked when we read his criticism and we wrote and told him so in no uncertain terms.

"I deplore the sort of stuff Mr Patterson wrote. It can only do harm especially as it is illinformed.”