ROTORUA SUFFERS FROM HOTEL MONOPOLY

Chronicle (Levin), 6 September 1946, Page 6

ROTORUA SUFFERS FROM HOTEL MONOPOLY

-Press Association

By Telegraph-

WELL1XCTOX, Sept. 3. ' "Since 1939 there has been 110 good reason wlxv — otlier more urgent Ixuildixxg operatioixs did lxot preveut it — the hotel eompanies at Rotorua shottld not have provided at least one nxodern hotel," states tlxe report of the Royal Coxxixnissioxx oxx licensing in ' a sixecial section dealing witlx Rotorua, it adds that some first class lire-proof lxotel, preferably with a view overlooking the lake, is required at Rotorixa, and later expresses the view that, if private enterprise does not undertake - in- duecourse the buildixxg of modern tourist hotels to rcquired standards, the State should do so. The report states that there are four licensed hotels at Rotorua. Lake Ilouse Hotel was built in 1S79, the 1'alace liotel in 1882, the Geyser in 18S4 and the (Land in 1906. All are ixx a fair state of repair. Three are owned by Hancock and Co. and L. D. Nathan and Co., Ltd., in equal slxares, but are leased to the. fornier. The Grand and Palace • are managed by Hancock and Co., wliile since 1941 Lake Ilouse has been let 011 I a weeklv tenancy. The Geyser is owned

by L. 1). Nathan and Co., but leased t-o Xew Zealand Breweries. The comnxissioxx gives credit to Hancock and Co. and L. D. Nathan and Co. for their earlv enterprise at Rotorua. It | states that for many years the hotels j and boarding houses there have been I pressed for accommodation, partieular- | ly during the summer. * f'.Viewixxg the whoie question, we do j not doubt that if there had been com- \ petition at Rotorua a modern hotel would have been erected between 1929 and 1939," states tlxe report. "The fact is that the eompanies which conduct the liotels at Rotorua are so interloeked that they eonstitute a praclical monopolv witlx respoct to hotel licences. '"'It is regrettable that the I-akx Ilouse Hotel, which occupies the best site in Rotorua, should uot have been rebuilt in 1938, instead of being repairecl at a eost of £6000. In that yeai the controlling conxpany chose to built

a new hotel at Whakatane for £32,848. It is difiieult to think that the provision of a modern hotel at Whakatane was more urgent tlian at Rotorua. " It is a reasoirable inference tlxat oue of the reasons wliich has prevented the rebuilding of Lake Ilouse is that the Grand Hotel occupies a site in the town. If the tourist trade vent to a modern hotel on the lakeside with a beautiful view tlxe Graxxd Hotel woxxld sufi'er. If the licences at Rotorua were not under tlie eontrol of a monoimly, but had- been held by real competitors, we have 1x0 doubt that some line modern hotels would have been built in Rotorua before tlxe present. '"•'•Tose attention also should be give.11 to whether the hotels at Rotorua should be built to accomiuodate the tralfic^reasonably to be expeeted during the tourist season and that, if ixecessaxy, rooms or wirigs sliould be elosed in the off season, as is done abroad. It is a relevant consideration that if modern hotels 1 were built more tourists would probably . be at.tracted for longer periods. " S ' ' -