STATE AID SOUGHT

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 12

STATE AID SOUGHT

Replacement Of Hotels (From Our Own Reporter) HOKITIKA, May 2. The Government is to be urged to make finance available for the replacement of the two hotels which were burnt down in Akaroa more than three years ago. A remit to this eifect was passed at the annual conference of the South Island Publicity Association yesterday. The. remit was put forward by the Akaroa County Council. Mr H. J. Mortlock, who moved it, said the Metropole Hotel, which was burnt down on January 3, 1962, had 33 beds. Six months later the Bruce Hotel, which had 28 beds, was destroyed by fire. The owners of the Metropole Hotel applied to the Government for assistance to rebuild, but the conditions were too stringent, Mr Mortlock said. It was beyond the capacity of private enterprise to build a hotel of the required standard. If a first-class hotel was built many New Zealand and overseas tourists would visit Akaroa, which was an attractive tourist and holiday place. The county council was establishing a golf course, and there was fishing, sailing, swimming, and scenic drives and walks, so it was ridiculous to say that Akaroa was not a tourist resort. Visitors To Museum Mr Mortlock said that in the last year an early French settler’s house built< in the 1840's had been preserved with the help of the Historic Places Trust, and attached to it was a museum which was opened on December 3, 1964. Since that time 5382 persons had signed the visitors’ book, and that was only half the number of persons who visited the museum. Many were from overseas. Quite a few overseas tourists had said they would stay two or three days in Akaroa if there was a first-class hotel in the town, said Mr Mortlock.

Mr H. MacDonald, a foreman stevedore with the Holm Shipping Company, Ltd, at Lyttelton since 1952, has retired. On behalf of the company and associates, Mr H. L. Herdman, Lyttelton branch manager of the company, presented Mr MacDonald with a gift at a special function.