Council missing positive step: RSBA

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 284, 25 April 1989, Page 4

Council missing positive step: RSBA

I am very disillusioned to hear the local council have decided not to allocate any funds directly towards the future economic wellbeing of the region. The $2000 odd that

Council put towards the information office places it amongst the county's least supportive of regional promotion. I know of no council who invests less. They seem happy to leave promotion to

Turoa Skifields and other mdividual operators. Spending money on a public relations officer would not have lessened the desire or commitment of these operators to promote in their own right but would have channelled those efforts in a much more co-operative and co-ordinated way. Something totally lacking now. We do have the attractions - they just need co-ordination and fine tuning. We don't see or even want anything like another Rotorua or Queenstown - but survival wouldn't be bad. Negative media and paranoia about the Greenhouse effect has led the region to a point of stagnation. Investment is at a virtual standstill and property values are the lowest for years.

But why should the ratepayer care? Tourism development means jobs and lots of them. From the earth movers and builders through the electrical and furnishing suppliers to cooks and housemaids and bus drivers and in the rural sector a market exists for farm experience visits and home stays. The average Japanese tourist likes to spend over $300 per day while on holiday in New Zealand and given the opportunity they'd like to spend more. This gets spread around by wages and purchases at local shops and then re-spent throughout the whole community. Tourism development means services which we all benefit from, including rural ratepayers, be it frcm the radio station or from a much larger range of shops. Do you think we would have a supermarket or a large builder's supplies yard or some of the small speciality shops if it wasn't for the demand tourism has already created? Tourist related demand may just be the difference Ohakune's Post Office needs to cement itself a future. Don't scoff, they closed Bulls recently - serving a larger area than hcre. With increased demand there is

no end of new services that could become available to everyone. A small airport, for one. Contributing to the wages of a Public Relations Officer is a positive step towards generating some of the things already talked about. Tourism is a very competitive game and the longer we sit back doing nothing the harder it will be for this region to carve itself a niche in the market. For this reason the Ruapehu South Business Association have decided to go ahead anyway for as long as funds allow, to employ a person to generate visitor interest in the Waimarino. To the people that argue we can't afford to, we say the state of things at present and with 1990 so close, we can't afford not to. People I've spoken to outside the region are totally amazed that for a tourist region the local council are so nonsupportive. They argue they agree in principle that they should be more financially behind tourism but trying to keep the rates down is No.l for them. I totally disagree. To have robbed a little here a.id there or to have increased rates by approximately 0.8% would have covered the $20,000 applied for by R.S.B.A. I realise being a councillor is a thankless task and you cer-

tainly can't please everybody. But here is a way you can have a direct influence on job creation and financial future of the region. Before you finalise the annual budget at your next formal meeting I would ask any councillor to get off the fence and bring this application up again for further discussion, hopefully resulting in a commitment in our future we can bank on. If any person has questions on the usage of this grant money please call me at 59059 or Sue Allomes at 58799, or if you are in agreement please phone your local councillor and voice your support. It's your future.

Phil

Abel

Maori amazement

I am writing to express my amazement after reading the article in your April 18 issue titled "Money available for Maori business". Although I am in favour of any scheme or idea which may provide long term unsubsidized employment, I strongly object to a Government funded authority channeling money through various organisations to any specific racial group. Surely this is a prime case of racism which has been started at top levels by a Government who is supposedly opposed to separatism.

Brian Goldfinch Ohakune

Grants confusion

In answer to Mr Clyde Olsen's letter April 11 titled 'small business arithmetic', as you say yourself, muddled is indeed the way you perceive it. The $20,000 grant application you refer to you are confusing between money granted by the Community Assistance and Promotions Scheme towards a feasibility study and architectural plan (at no cost to ratepayers) and

the application for $20,000 towards a Public Relations Officer. The $12,000 you refer to I can't find reference to anywhere. Your reference to the once proud railway station as a qaint slum is indicative of your nonappreciation as a newcomer to the very important part the railways has played in the history of the region. It is something we feel is important enough to preserve, as did enough people who attended the public meeting of the club recently to see the plan and pledge $12,000 and untold man-hour?. Your paragraph: "What they really want it appears is a form of expensive dole for unemployed business people" is what really riled me though. The underlying theme I think you are suggesting is that members of the R.S.B.A. are a bunch of capitalists with an ulterior motive of lining their own pockets. This possibly popular view is just not so. We will all freely admit that through our efforts we hope to see an increase in tourist dollars spent in this region. Because we freely admit this I don't call that motive ulterior. If we were true capitalists we would up and leave and invest in somewhere with a more immediate return. We stay because we all like living here and we believe development is in the community's interest. If as your letter suggests you are against development I wonder why you bought a house in a zone called tourist development?

Phil

Abel