HOTEL ACCOMMODATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3713, 12 May 1925, Page 52

HOTEL ACCOMMODATION.

NEED FOR AN IMPROVEMENT. WELLINGTON, May 7 The lion. G. J. Anderson, after telling members of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce what the Government was doing to advertise New Zealand, said that the hotels wefe going to reap the principal benefit, and they would have to clean them up. It was no use asking people to come here without supplying them with the best of accommodation. REPLY TO THE MINISTER. CRITICISM RESENTED. WELLINGTON, May 7. Mr Percy Coyle (president of the New Zealand Licensed Victuallers’ Association), in an interview with a New Zealand Times representative, replied to the remarks of the Hon. G. J. Anderson. “Someone asked about tenure,” said Mr Coyle. “To that Mr Anderson replied: ‘There is no use talking about that here. That is a very controversial subject, and a matter that the people decide every three years.’ The people do not decide the question of tenure at all,” emphatically remarked Mr Coyle. “They decide the question of the abolition, but not the question of tenure, which 'is a Government matter and can be done only by altering the Act. The people do not vote on that, but on abolition, and it is the insecurity of tenure created by the vote every three years that is mainly responsible for retarding the progress of building and renovations in the hotel business. Mr Anderson referred to a little boarding-house in his electorate so old that it was about to fall down, but they could go there and find it so clean from one end to the other that they would be delighted to have a meal or sleep there. That should be the same everywhere. Having given a specific instance, Mr Anderson proceeds to make the general statement that when a first-class hotel charges a firstclass price, and the man from the United States, with his wife and family, goes there and finds that the place is not even clean, how can you expect that man to recommend your scenic beauties or anything else? “My point is this,” continued Mr Coyle, “in regard to that. The American tourist, when he arrives here, will, outside the four centres, be visiting places like Rotorua and other well-known resorts, where it cannot possibly be said that accommodation is not of the highest standard. Mr Anderson cannot publicly suggest that the accommodation in Rotorua or any other tourist resort is below the standard. It it a matter of regret that he chose to he specific in regard to a boarding-house while generalising in regard to hotels.”