Booking issue not resolved

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33963, 2 October 1975, Page 13

Booking issue not resolved

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 30. The Minister of Tourism (Mrs TirikateneSullivan) told Parliament today that the misunderstanding over a booking at the Dunedin Town Hall earlier this month had not yet been resolved.

Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan has been reported as saying she was outraged that an important Maori booking for the Dunedin Town Hall had been cancelled in favour of a meeting to be addressed by

the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Muldoon). The allegation was denied by the Mayor of Dunedin (Mr J. G. Barnes) and the Town Clerk of Dunedin (Mr D. M. Shirley). Replying to a question today by Mr G. F. Gair (Nat., North Shore) Mrs TirikateneSullivan said she had had two meetings with the parties involved but the misunderstanding had not been resolved. The misunderstanding seemed to arise from difference in verbal and written answers given to the Maori group, she said. In a separate question, the Prime Minister (Mr Rowling) said his press secretary (Mr J. Thorpe) had travelled to Dunedin with Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan in her attempts to resolve the matter, because the matter involved the news media, making Mr Thorpe’s presence appropriate. Asked by the Leader of the ■Opposition (Mr Muldoon) if !he did not consider the matter “extremely serious,” Mr Rowling said there was a great deal of difference between serious and unusual. The matter was “an area of misunderstanding,” he said.