REPLY MADE TO SOLICITOR ABOUT EDGECUMBE HOTEL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 22, 17 April 1950, Page 5

REPLY MADE TO SOLICITOR ABOUT EDGECUMBE HOTEL

A full and lengthy reply to a letter written by Mr B. S. Barry, solicitor for the owners of the present private hotel at Edgecumbe, on the proposal to establish a trust hotel at Edgecumbe has been sent to the Editor of the Beacon by Mr lan B. Gow, of Edgecumbe, who is chairman of a committee set up to go into the trust hotel. Mr Gow writes: —

'“I shall be glad to avail myself of your columns to reply to a letter sent by Mr Barry to you, presumably for publication in these columns, which you saw fit to publish with your own comment that they contained some interesting facts,” states Mr Gow. ’

“Those Who Seek . . ” “Those who seek to influence public opinion in this way should be careful indeed of their facts and in this case some of the statements made by Mr Barry were not facts 'and where, he has stated the facts, a partial truth has so obscured .the true isues as to make his statement scarcely facts at all. “As a result, perhaps, of Mr Barry’s letter, a very good public meeting was held at Edgecumbe to ■discuss the whole matter. The real facts of the case were given there but I feel that they deserve the same publicity as that given to Mr Barry’s letter. “Let me go back to the beginning then. “Mr Radcliffe has stated public:ly that when the question of having a “community centre” as partof a war pemorial scheme was first discussed at Edgecumbe he suggested that the most convenient way of .financing the growing need for such ame.iities at Edgecumbe would undoubtedly be to establish a trust hotel there and thus obtain a. perpetual source of financial supply. He did feel however, that such a proposal would receive little support from the responsible people of the district and upon making enquiries found this to be so.

Active Opposition “Mr Barry should note here that it was found that, if any action had been taken by the district at that time, it was more likely to have been active opposition to the issue of any license. “We were given to understand, in a statement made by Cr Luxton at our public meeting, that the Whakatane County Council would not support the application of any individual for the issue of a license to the district and for want of any public demand in this matter, gave no support before the Licensing Commission to the only application made —that of Mr Holden. Let it be noted that the County Council has in no way changed its ground over this question and has merely lent its name/' in order that the Edgecumbe people should themselves be allowed to investigate the possibilities of a Trust Hotel'.

Altruistic Concern “Surely Mr Barry does not suggest that any altruistic concern for the good of the Edgecumbe people prompted his clients to go before the Commission and press for the* issue of a license to the district. “However, that may be, the fact is that a license has now begn granted to the district and it behoves the residents to consider how best to operate it. Let it be remembered that, even if a poll should demonstrate a clear wish to establish such an hotel, this desire would be only one of the factors which would affect the granting of a licence, Mr Holden would have equal right to press his claims, which Mr Barr.y feels are so well established. “There is just one further point in Mr Barry’s letter which should be answered. The time in which action could be taken by the Progressive League proved to be so short that some apparently strange steps had to be taken. The working of the provisions of the Public Works Act was part of this, but surely the good sense, which Mr Barry normally displays, should have suggested to him jthat nothing quite so strange woiild be done as the nominating of Mr Holden’s property as the site for the Trust Hotel.

Site Selected “If he cares to make further enquiries he will find that the requisite notice for the acquisition of the site was posted on a portion of the Board Mill Company’s property some hundred yards or so away from the boarding house. “I am sure that, whatever Mr Barry may feel as counsel for Mr Holden, he must believe as first citizen of Whakatane, that the people should have not only some but all of the facts upon matters cf public interest,” Mr Gow concludes.