Random reminder

Press, 19 July 1979, Page 22

Random reminder

BITTER BLOW "A drop in motel patronage experienced at Tauranga during Queen’s Birthday week-end was one oE many adjustments which had to be faced up to, said the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s energy committee.” — News item. Now hang on a minute! We realised that there was an energy crisis. We realised that this country was largely powerless in the hands of the oil companies and elderly, crabby Persian gentlemen in berets. We realised that earless days and closed garages at week-ends were an inevitable consequence of our vulnerability to international events over which we had no control. But nobody ever told us that all this would result in a drop in motel patronage at Tauranga during Queen’s Birthday week-end. That possibility was something which we never contemplated, and which we would have found too awful to contemplate if it had not been thrust under our noses in this entirely unexpected way. After all, the level of motel patronage at Tauranga at Queen’s Birthday weekend is the country’s most significant economic barometer, and Tauranga motel proprietors have for years

willingly placed themselves in the front line of the struggle to ensure decent living standards for all, particularly all motel proprietors. We had no idea that they were going to be blithely sacrificed in this way. It seems to us that the last thing that the country should accept is that motel patronage in Tauranga should decline over Queen’s Birthday week-end. It seems to us that whatever measures are taken to cope with the current crisis, that they should include a positive stimulus to motel patronage in Tauranga over Queen’s Birthday weekend. Fortunately there is still a year to plan towards next Queen’s Birthday week-end. One suggestion which we ; tentatively put forward is that next year’s Telethon should be moved back a bit and held in Tauranga. That ought to fill the motels, and even if it empties the Telethon coffers somewhat, that would be no bad thing. After all, Telethon is rapidly reaching the point j where it is becoming, not only a | substitute for real life, but also for ) real charity.