Hotel purchase attacked

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33263, 28 June 1973, Page 13

Hotel purchase attacked

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 26. The Government’s purchase of the Rotorua International Hotel was a blow to the tourist industry, said the Opposition spokesman on tourism, Mr H. J. Walker (Papanui) this evening. Without its private sector the industry would not have become the success story it was today, he said in a state-

ment,

“It is regrettable that the Labour Government has now seen fit to enter into direct and perhaps unfair competition with these people, instead of retaining the successful Government-private sector partnership which had evolved,” he said.

i “In the past the purpose of ; the Tourist Hotel Corporation • has been to provide suitable • accommodation in key tourist ‘ areas, where for seasonal and ' other reasons, the private sector has not been able to • afford to operate.” Mr Walker said that traditionally the corporation '■showed a loss that was annually made good from taxpayers’ funds. But since the reconstruction of its accounts' Drugs haul in Thailand 'I (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) ' BANGKOK. The Thai police have seized I 4071 b of drugs worth 10 mil- . lion baht ($350,000) in a raid ’•on a hilltop village occupied: ;by former Chinese nationalist, troops now in exile, in northern Thailand. A task force of 60 policeI men in 'five helicopters, ' launched an airborne assault! Hon the village, in the province' of Chiang Rai, on the Burmese border, where men ‘ of the former 93rd Kuomin-! tang Division are living. A house-to-house search J was made, and 228.81 b of| ' opium, 149.61 b of morphine,; 1 and 28.61 b of high-grade ' heroin were seized, along .with five carbines, three 1 rifles, two Sten guns, and a, \ large quantity of ammuni- ! tion. Nine Chinese were , arrested. About 6000 former ■ nationalist Chinese troops , fled into northern Thailand after being driven out of the H Chinese province of Yunnan I by Communist forces in 1949.

in 1970-71, it was estimated that the corporation would come into profit about September, 1973. Given good leadership it was not necessary to spend taxpayers’ money on establishing corporation hotels in areas where the small, private firm could make a profit. “Whether the new Labour policy of using taxpayers’ money to compete against the .small private operator will : improve the over-all profitability of the corporation is a matter for conjecture,” Mr Walker said. “But certainly today, in the i light of the interest of the I private sector in providing I further accommodation of all grades in key tourist areas, I xan see no case for the corporation to become involved in citv hotels.”