STATE-OWNED HOTELS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1921, Page 10

STATE-OWNED HOTELS.

FAILURE IN DARWIN. LEASES OFFERED FOR SALE. Sydney, June 1. Tenders are now being called by the Commonwealth Government for the lease or purchase of 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. Labor extremists practically got control of Darwin, and declared war on enterprises of all kinds. They practically killed Vestey’s meat works. The works, owing to the extortionate labor charges, could not cany on. Vestey’s cut their losses and closed the works. The employees continued to stay 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 meat works remain there, to-day as an instance of how Labor fanatics can kill a private enterprise, which, if left 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 more 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 labor 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 beer. This condition has continued ow for about a year, and, of course, the hotels are. showing heavy losses.

The Federal Government has taken the only possible course, and the hotels arcon the market.