Red-tape Methods Hold Up New Government Hostel at Waitomo

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 236, 24 December 1927, Page 1

Red-tape Methods Hold Up New Government Hostel at Waitomo

TOURISTS WAIT FOR ACCOMMODATION THE contractors for the erection of the new hostel at Waitomo recently offered to complete the structure and have it ready for occupation for the midsummer rush of tourist traffic, but the Government, with traditional adherence to specification and contract, would not agree to take the building over until time limit specified in the agreement—June of next year.

Those who are interested in the tourist resorts of the Dominion have been eagerly watching the progress of the new hostel, because it meant so much to the comfort and convenience of the holiday visitors, and the Minister in charge of tourist resorts, the Hon. W. Nosworthy, promised in the Plouse of Representatives during last session to see what could be done to facilitate the accommodation arrangements there for this Christmas rush. The erection of the building was commenced in April of this year, and the contractors were given 16 months in which to do the job. Within eight months the bottom floor is complete, and a great part of the first floor. It is clear, then, that the Government will not have recourse to call for their penalty of £2O for every week over the contract time. When negotiations were made with the Government to see if the hostel would be taken over as soon as completed, the contractors promised to have everything in order by Christmas, but when this offer was declined by the authorities, 12 of the 17 men who had been working on the job were taken off. and those in charge simply jogged along quietly, with no other object than that of getting through at their own convenience. The manager of the present accommodation house at the caves has had a busy time with holiday bookings, and it is learned that the place is well filled to the end of January. The extra accommodation would have been available at a very convenient moment.

The position now is that the five men who have been working on the contract have left for the Christmas holidays, and those who visit the caves during the festive season will see the nearly completed hostel, and have the doubtful satisfaction of knowing that but for a tenacious adherence to State departmental regulation, they might have been occupying the new and comfortable building. The builders, Messrs. Noel Cole and Co., Auckland, have given their assurance to THE SUN that the contract will be completed well within the original estimate of £27,000. “We were prepared to finish it and get shot of It,” their representative said this morning, “but when the Government refused to help us, by taking the building over as soon as we completed it, there was no object in our hurrying. People are ringing up for accommodation at Waitomo, and cannot get it. We could have given it to them before Christmas.”