State-Owned Hotels

Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1921, Page 3

State-Owned Hotels

'FAILURE IN DARWIN

SYDNEY, June 1

The hotel farce, long played by Hie Commonwealth Government in the Northern Territory, has come to an end. Tenders are now being called for the lease or purchase of the four hotels—three in Darwin and one at Pine Creek. These hotels have been run at a loss for years. Up till about 1917 they were returning a small profit, although their condition and management were the subject of much hostile criticism. Then matters gradually got worse. Labour extremists practically got control of Darwin, and declared, war on enterprises of all kinds. They killed Vestey’s meat works practically stone dead. The works, owing to the extortionate labour charges, could not carry on. Vestey’s out their losses and closed film works. The employees continued to bang about the streets of Darwin, making impassioned speeches on sociological subjects, until faced with starvation. Then the majority of them got themselves shipped away to other States, and obtained work. The gaunt, silent mea.tworks remain there to-day as an instance of 'how Labour fanatics can kill a private enterprise which, if loft alone, would have enriched the whole district.

The Bolshevik virus crept into the hotels, as into every other establishment in the Territory, and efficient management became practically impossible. Cooks and housemaids and barmen demanded and obtained perfectly ridiculous wages—some getting moie than the managers. Matters were in this condition when the coastal freights were again increased, and the price of carrying beer from the eastern States to Darwin was raised. This, and the increased labour cost, forced the management to raise the price of draught beer. The new beer prices incensed the Bolsheviks, who as usual demanded everything and were prepared to give nothing. So they declared all hotels “black,” and the faithful were forbidden to enter them or drink their beei. This condition has continued now for about a year and, of course, the hotels arc showing .heavy losses. The Federal Government has taken the only possible course, and the hotels are on'the market. This action should have been taken years ago.