MORE MOTELS FOR MT. COOK

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31279, 27 January 1967, Page 3

MORE MOTELS FOR MT. COOK

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, January 26. Approval to go to tender was today given by the Cabinet works committee for the motel project to be built for the Tourist Hotel Corporation in the Mount Cook National Park.

Announcing this, the Minister in charge of Tourism (Mr Thomson) said it gave him great satisfaction that one of his first public duties as the new Tourist Minister should be to give news of sig-

nificant progress on such an important project. Asked when the building was likely to start, Mr Thomson said that, provided tenders were within the limits of the expenditure approved, work could start within two months. He hoped that it could be completed for the 1967-68 tourist season.

Criticisms Made

"I am well aware that there has been frustration and delay over this project,” he said, “and because of it there has been a certain amount of uninformed criticism of the Mount Cook National Park Board from some South Island quarters.

“I would like to make it perfectly clear that the delays have been occasioned solely because of problems associated with planning and costs, and criticism of the board is quite unjustified.”

The new motels, which will accommodate 84 to 100 persons, will be built on the Glencoe fan. They will incorporate the restaurant now run by the corporation, which purchased it some months ago.