Time running out to buy Bounty—M.P.

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 9

Time running out to buy Bounty—M.P.

Parliamentary reporter Time was running out for the Government to save the 'ship Bounty for New Zealand, according to the Opposition spokesman on tourism, Mr M. K. Moore (Lab., Papanui). The Bounty is a scaleddown fully rigged ship built in New Zealand for a feature film about the famous mutiny. She is due to sail from' New Zealand today. Mr Moore urged the Minister of Tourism, Mr Talbot, to approach the ship’s owner as she could be bought for far less than the sum the Minister had planned to allocate to the “Miss Universe” pageant had that gone ahead. The

asking price had halved during the last two years. It would be distressing for New Zealanders if they had to visit the Bounty at Los Angeles when, with a little Government foresight, she could have been seen here. The Bounty could be used as a tourist attraction, as a prop for the film industry, for harbour trips, as a museum, or even as a training ship for the Navy — as the United States, Norwegians or British did. Mr Moore said it was almost, but not quite, too late for the Minister to act. It was an “act of vandalism” to lose such a historic asset; a young nation like New Zealand had to nurture its history.

But Mr Talbot said the Bounty mutiny was in no sense part of New Zealand’s history. The only connection with New Zealand was that the replica ship for the film had been built at Whangarei. “Anyone would think from the way Mr Moore was talking we were in danger of losing one of the First Four Ships or an ancestral Maori canoe,” Mr Talbot said. If any commercial interest in New Zealand wanted to buy the Bounty for a tourist venture, the Government would welcome any proposal to keep the vessel in New Zealand.