Gloomy article on Raetihi annoys mayor, residents

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 39, 11 March 1986, Page 5

Gloomy article on Raetihi annoys mayor, residents

Is Raetihi a dying and depressed town where business people hang on by the skin of their teeth and houses are cheap but sit on the market for years? That is the way an article published in the January Money Report, a magazine published for the exclusive club of American Express Gold Cardmembers would have it. According to the article, life for the town's 1200 residents had become a struggle and "the odd casual survey" showed that few earned anywhere near the average New Zealand wage of $3 1 0 a week. Businesses closed with "monotonous regularity" and shopkeepers "spent hours on the phone each week chasing up debts." All in all the article paints a picture of doom and gloom, of a sad town in which "locals know they are living in what can only be described as a depressed area," where pay and opportunity are less than average. Needless to say Raetihi and district residents who have come across this apocalyptic vision of the town are not impressed. Mayor Garrick Workman said that some of the com-

ments made were reasonable but most were rubbish. "Some reporter came down from Auckland and talked to a couple of disgruntled business people but made no effort to get behind the facade to find out what was really happening," he said. Andrew Corrtwall, borough councillor and partner in Peach Cornwall and Partners, chartered accountants, was also forthright, saying the article appeared to be the result of a half hour stopover in town. "It is totally erroneous and biased, shows a lamentable lack of research and shouldn't have been written," he said. Mr Cornwall pointed to a number of assertions in the article which he said were incorrect such as the comment that few earned anywhere near the average wage. "There are of course people in every community earning less than the average wage, but $310 works out as $16,000 a year and I would think that teachers, government and local body employees, Winstones workers and truck drivers and so on would all be getting more than that," he said. "The implication is that most are below the average

when in fact the opposite is true." On the comment that businesses open and close with "monotonous regularity" he said it was a normal part of the cycle of business that some closed and some started again. "I was in the Sheraton Mall in Auckland recently and there were more shops closed than open.— no one says Auckland is collapsing as a result." Mr Cornwall said it was true that when a particular type of business closed in a town like Raetihi, such as the printery, it was unlikely that it would reopen. The article pointed out accurately that in common with other hill country areas, farmers in the Raetihi district were in difficulty, but went on to say that at least one farmer has been forced to sell. Mr Cornwall said that to his knowledge this was untrue. The price of milk, said in the article to be higher than "almost anywhere else in New Zealand," and related to the closure of the local milk treatment plant, was in fact untrue as the price of a bottle of milk dropped five cents at that time. Mr Cornwall said he considered that the article was written with an Auckland bias by a person who had obviously set out with preconceived ideas then selected evidence to prove his hypothesis. "He apparently approached few businesses, he did not

approach the bank, the mayor or this accountancy firm, or any other person with an overview of the community. "He merely listened to rumours rather than enquiring of people who know what is going on," he said. "It is all speculation and pessimism — he says the local hospital may close down but there are no plans for it to do so." "Finally the most important point — there was not a word about our proximity to Ohakune and the skifields — the two communities interact and the tourism benefits Raetihi as well."