CATERER’S HONOUR

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 January 1947, Page 9

CATERER’S HONOUR

FORMER N.Z. TEACHER. An ex-New Zealand school teacher and her husband have been appointed by the city authorities of Durban to supervise the catering for all the official functions during the Royal Family's visit to Durban. They are Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Corrigali, who until recently were the proprietors of the Harcourt Hotel, which they bought three years ago. The success of their ownership is indicated by the fact that they bought the hotel for £16,000 and sold it to Holiday Hotels, Ltd., for £42,000. Mr. and Mrs. Corrigali have given up hotelkeeping and bought a farm in the Natal midlands, where they will bring up their children, Jill and Ashton, but they have accepted the invitation to return to Durban as caterers for the Royal visit.

Mrs. Corrigali is the daughter of Mrs. M. Ashton-Warner, of Stokes Valley, Wellington. Before going to South Africa she held teaching appointments at Gisborne, Hastings, Te Whiti, Lyall Bay, Levuka (Fiji), Petone Main, and Cornwall Park School (Auckland). She went to South Africa on exchange and had a distinguished teaching career there before marrying Dr. John Redwood Payne, second son of the Mayor of Pietermaritbzurg. Her second marriage was to a university lecturer, Mr. J. W. Corrigali. The Harcourt Hotel, which stands at the top of a 400-foot cliff, and looks out over a wide expanse of coastline and the Indian Ocean, has 72 rooms and the biggest dance floor in Durban. It is remarkable that two exschool teachers should have become so successful with an establishment so large.