PROPOSED CITY AIRPORT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21759, 16 April 1936, Page 11

PROPOSED CITY AIRPORT

MINISTER'S REPLY AWAITED UNEMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE'S DISCUSSION "Until the Minister for Public Works receives an assurance from the Minister for Defence that another airport is necessary in Christchurch nothing will be done," said the Mayor, Mr J. W. Beanland, at the meeting of the Citizens' Unemployment Committee yesterday, when asked what progress had been made in the representations of the City Council to the Government. Mr Beanland added that surveys on the site at Harewood had been completed, levels had been taken, and everything was ready for an immediate start as soon as authority to do so was obtained. The chairman, Mr E. H. Andrews, who with the Town Clerk, Mr J. S. Neville, interviewed the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in Wellington, endorsed Mr Beanland's explanation. He said the defence officers had been so urgent regarding the need for a second airport that they had practically forced the City Council to take steps to provide a site. , Mr W. E. Leadley suggested that the committee should pass a resolution with the object of hastening a decision on the matter, but Mr G. Maginness expressed the opinion that as the Minister for Defence was going into the question it would be as well to leave the matter alone for the present. Mr Leadley then agreed to withdraw his proposal.