No lead on woman

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33958, 26 September 1975, Page 2

No lead on woman

'N.Z. Press Association) i; DUNEDIN, September 25. ; Investigations today into suggestions that! another woman may have given an interview with the Dunedin ‘"Evening Star” in the name of the Minister of Tourism (Mrs TirikateneI* Sullivan) revealed little.

The suspicions of another] woman’s involvement had i been voiced by officials close to both the Minister 1 and the Prime Minister, the ' : "Otago Daily Times” said (tonight. Sources at the hotel said] today that the Minister had stayed in her room after the ' netball tournament’s opening and had received several telephone calls during the day. Mr Carpinter has said he telephoned the Minister late!] in the morning of September 6. although he cannot be': precise about the time. He I; places the time because he i knew his newspaper’s dead-!: line was approaching. A woman who claimed she was in the Minister’s room about, late morning to mid-' 1 day, said today that no telephone call was received, from any person while she was in the Minister’s room, ii The woman, who did not wish to be identified, satdji

i she had attended the netball tournament opening. Mrs Ti-h rikatene-Sullivan had indie-! ated to her that she wanted!

to see a reporter and had (then gone back to her hotel.! A Radio New Zealand re-! I porter had asked the woman ( where the Minister was and] the woman had taken the re-1 porter in her car to the Southern Cross. There, according to the! woman, she sat down on a! bed in Mrs Tirikatene-Sulli-; van’s suite and listened] while the interview took! place. She said it took some con-i siderable time and she her-1 self had been involved in what turned out to be a three-way discussion. “I did not hear any other! reporter speak to her,” the! woman said. The woman said the) suite’s telephone was near; her during the interview and at no stage had it rung, nor had she spoken to any reporter. The woman said she • felt that the Minister had been “maligned” over the incident. “The “Otago Daily Times” also learned today that Radio New Zealand had received two calls from a i woman wanting to know 'w’hether tape recordings of the radio interview had been (destroyed. ] One calf was received' ; earlier by the Radio New ; Zealand reporter involved. (The second was received lasi night, when the Minister and I the Prime Minister’s press (secretary were in Dunedin. A source in Radio New 'Zealand said the woman’s i identity was known to the i corporation.