NEW AIRPORT FOR AUCKLAND

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27415, 30 July 1954, Page 12

NEW AIRPORT FOR AUCKLAND

“GLARING APATHY’’ OF LOCAL BODIES SIR KEITH PARK RESIGNS FROM COMMITTEE (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 29. Sir. Keith Park today handed in his resignation as chairman of the Auckland International Airport Committee, and criticised the city for “glaring apathy.” Auckland, he said, will never get a proper international airport unless the City Council, metropolitan local bodies, and the airlines themselves worked for the project. He told a special meeting of the committee that, after six years, it was time those really responsible “got down and did some work” towards pushing through the proposed Mangere project. Local bodies and the airlines had been inactive “all these years” because they were afraid of offending the Government, he said. It had taken the committee five years to get agreement on the Mangere site, he added. Progress had been slow primarily because of lack of co-operation among local authorities and the small interest of local airlines. Sir Keith Park contrasted developments in Christchurch, where the City Council “got right in behind Harewood and spoke for the whole city.” The Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr T. L. Macdonald) has told the Auckland City Council that a survey of the Mangere site will begin as soon as the council agrees in principle to pay half the capital cost and future maintenance. Commenting on this, Sir Keith Park said: —“It means that unless Auckland reaches agreement within its own boundaries, the Government will do nothing. Even the survey w'on’t be started till this is done.”