SOUTH ISLAND LOCAL BODIES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25933, 13 October 1949, Page 6

SOUTH ISLAND LOCAL BODIES

ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF ASSOCIATION MR ANDREWS SAYS TIDE IS TURNING (New Zealand Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, October 12. The South Island Local Bodies’ Association was a non-political organisation established for the development of the South Island in all aspects, said i the president of the association (Mr E. H. Andrews, Mayor of Christchurch) m opening the seventh annual conference of the association at Queenstown to-day. “I have heard some prophecies that the association will die but it is growing in animation. The association is almost 100 per cent, representative of local bodies in the South Island.” In his report to the conference Mr Andrews said the tide was gradually turning in favour of the south but the association must not relax its efI forts. The association had received considerable recognition this year through a number of requests that the j Government had granted. However, 'much hal not been achieved on several points and no encouragement gained in others. The association had continued to press its claims as there was much to be done. Support for Rongotai The conference decided to support the plans of the engineers for the development of Rongotai airport as a major base. The view of some of the delegates that Rongotai was a North Island problem was regarded by the conference generally as parochial. It was the endeavour of the association, in developing the South Island, to bind the twi islands closer together through efficient transport and communications. The discussion on remits criticising catchment boards ended when the president, with the backing of the executive, ruled that the remits were out of order. A remit from the Cromwell Borough Council asked that the Government be urged to investigate fully the Nevis shale deposits. In support of the remit it was claimed that the development of these deposits was important to the economy of the Dominion and particularly during a period of war. This enormous source of potential wealth should be tapped, said Mr R. S. Thompson, of Tuapeka. If it were, it might mean no petrol rationing and it would save dollars. The remit was carried. The development of second-class land was discussed when the Wallace County Council moved that the Government be asked to evolve a scheme for their development by private enterprise, including the provision of an adequate subsidy on costs. Several delegates supported the remit, but Mr Thompson said the solution was to put the incentive back into farming. I f that were done second-class land would be farmed as it should be. The Government had taken away the incentive from farming by pegging land values at 1942 figures. The matter was • referred to the executive, with a reI quest that it be taken up with the Government.