Mt Hutt skiers upset

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 6

Mt Hutt skiers upset

By

FELICITY PRICE

Five cart trapped up Mount Hutt since Saturday were freed by a grader yesterday.; One of them, buried under snow and abandoned with its windows down, was filled with snow and ice when ■ reached by its owners yes-' terday afternoon. The cars were all left up' the private road to the Mountl Hutt ski-field on Saturday I when they became stuck in J snowdrifts during a blizzard.! Drivers were unable to seei the road when car windows! iced up and driving snow made visibility almost nil. ' Other cars which left the; ski-field after midday, when! the blizzard worsened, took| up to eight hours to get down the 7J-mile road—a! journey which usually takes; half ah hour. For the second time this 1 season, skiers were upset! with the Mount Hutt Ski and' Alpine Tourist Company, Ltd,; the proprietors of the ski-'I field, for drawing them up the mountain with reports of I good ski-ing conditions and

; fine weather, only to be met ■ with a blizzard. A sign at the tollgate on I the private road to the skifield said as late as 10.30 a.m.[ i that the weather on the field was fine and the snow, excel-1 [lent. However, at that time; it had started to snow, andi the Weather Office was sending out warnings of strong! i southerly winds expected by| [early afternoon. A spokesman for the De-, partment of Trade and In-; |dustry said yesterday that' should anyone complain to. ■ the department about mis- I Reading reports of ski-ing [conditions at any public field,| I the department would have; Ito investigate the matter. I ! Under the Consumer In-j [formation Act. 1969. any person or company who misleads the public by adver-) tisement or information is; [Hable to prosecution by the| denartmp’n*. subiect to a complaint’s being laid. Section 9 (4) of the act! says that “No person shallpublish or cause to be pub-i lished anv advertisement that'

[contains an express or implied representation relating [to the nature, suitability, [quantity, quality, etc., or effects of any goods if he knows or ought to know that the representation is false or misleading.”

I “Goods” are defined in the act as any article, product, ‘or service that is intended for [sale; “advertisement” is del fined as words, whether written, printed, or spoken, or any picture, drawing, or figure used to notify or promote the sale of these goods. Meanwhile, a meeting of I directors of the Mount Hutti Ski and Alpine Tourist Com-' pany last evening decided toi hold a press conference today: on the subject of ski-field reports and the events on j Saturday. Mr P. Yeoman, the ski-: field manager, who returned from Australia yesterday.! said that the directors had! agreed to hold the press conference to “set the record; straight” about any questions [ unanswered after the week-! end.