HAREWOOD AIR TERMINAL

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25796, 6 May 1949, Page 6

HAREWOOD AIR TERMINAL

development Without State Aid POSSIBILITY TO BE INVESTIGATED The president and the vice-presi-dent of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce with members of the Harewood Overseas Air Terminal Committee will approach the Christchurch City Council to see if Harewood aerodrome may be developed by the citizens of Christchurch without Government assistance. This was decided at a meeting of the council of the chamber last evening after two letters had been considered. • The first letter was from Mr G. T. Weston, who described himself as a private citizen. The letter read ’as follows: “ . . The people of the South Island seem almost unanimous in their belief that an international airport here is essential to the reasonable progress of our island. “The Government seems unwilling, for some reason, to support such an undertaking and it would appear that to win recognition the time has come for residents of the province at once to shoulder the burden and out of their own pockets to find the money required to secure a most important means of communication wffh Australia and the rest of the world.” Mr Weston mentioned the endeavours of the pioneers who built the Christchurch Cathedral and the Lyttelton tunnel without Government assistance.

A letter from the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser), which was in reply to a letter from the council about the development of Harewood, said: "It will not be possible for, the Government to arrive at any decision regarding this aerodrome until the report of the Aerodrome Committee has been received and considered. However, I am placing your representations before the Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr F. Jones), will be further advised in the matter in due course?* “This letter from Mr Fraser is an open affront to the citizens of Christchurch and the South Island,” said Mr J. R. Dench. “This’ aerodromes committee was formed 12 months ago and the Minister promised us a report two months later.” Since then a fine new aerodrome had been built at Hokitika, another had been constructed at Hilderthorpe, and another at Kaikoura. There had been and was. in fact, aerodrome development all over New Zealand. “Our intelligence is being insulted by this report. Harewood needs no sponsor. If you cared to read the diary of the Harewood Overseas Air Terminal Committee you would find that it was like the Mad Hatter’s dream. We had three Ministers of the Crown saying three different things en three different occasions. On ‘one occasion one Minister flatly contradicted what another Minister had said during the same week. V “A Fairy Tale”

“The whole business reads like a fairy tale. The Prime Minister said the same things to us 18 months ago as he is saying to-day.” said Mr Dench. “People stop me in the street and ask me what is at the bottom of the Government’s reluctance to do anything about Harewood. Wellington has not yet realised that there are about 175,000 people in Christchurch. Only last week we heard of a Minister promising a South Island town with a population of 70,000 that it would most certainly have the busiest air terminal in the South Island,” he said.

Harewood would oe the same as the tunnel road project, said Mr Dench. Christchurch would be allowed to drag behind the North Island because Christchurch had done things for itself without assistance from the Government. “We gave the Lyttelton tunnel to the Government, and they permit us to use it. The Harewood aerodrome belongs to the municipality of Christchurch and I agree that we should- now do something about it ourselves.” he said. If the City Council decided to develop Harewood it would be the best investment that the council could make, said Mr E. T. Beaven. Since the Government seemed pledged to ultimate socialism it would one day have to buy Harewood back from the City Council ancF the council would then exact a reasonable toll for it. The South Island, in the meantime, was being deliberately left off the map by the iniquitous decision of the Government.

“We have got overwhelming public support for the development of Harewood, but nothing has been done,” said Mr H. S. Williams. “Let’s emulate our pioneers, who tunnelled through the hills -and build Harewood ourselves.”

“Until the tunnel road goes through with adequate goods sheds at Lyttelton for storage, I don’t think that there’s much we can do,” said Mr R. C. Jamieson. “This won’t meet with your approval, but we’ve got to get a good road through from Armagh street to Helmore’s road, and a chain-wide road through from Harewood for heavy traffic.” He suggested that the Lyttelton Harbour Board, instead of spending £BO,OOO on amenities for waterside workers, should contribute that sum towards the project. International Agreements Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon asked what the position would be if Harewood were completed by the city’s enterprise and no air transport was permitted to use Harewood as an overseas terminal. “Who would license Harewood if we could not get over the international agreements about airlines?” he asked. If Harewood were developed to international standards the Civil Aviation branch could license the airport, said Mr Dench. The Australian and New Zealand Governments had pledged that there would be no other service across the Tasman unless they owned it. The first step was to bring the aerodrome up to the required standard, then the public clamour would be so great for trips to Australia that the aerodrome would be licensed.

“There are seven or eight members of Parliament from Christchurch and its surrounding districts, and we know of the efforts that two of them have made to get Harewood established as an overseas terminal,” said Mr H. Warren. “The other four or five are just dumb. Both tne Christchurch newspapers have brought to light interesting .things recently. One was the price of beer, covered in a very good series of interviews. The papers might have an interview with each of our local members of Parliament to see what they are doing about Harewood so that the public might read about it.” /

Answering a question, Mr Dench said that the international standards for aerodromes were set out in the Tymms report, upon which the Government had not so acted.. A wellknown authority who had laid out aerodromes had told him that the development of Harewood would cost about £400,000, but other opinions were that the cost would be much less than that. There was unanimous approval of the motion that the president and .the vice-president and members of the Hare wood Overseas Air Terminal Committee meet the Christchurch City Council.