Irresponsibility

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27439, 27 August 1954, Page 10

Irresponsibility

Mr Nash is determined to take whatever political advantage he can from Wellington’s petulant dissatisfaction with the Government’s very

proper decision on international airports. Ohakea, Mr Nash said in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, should be equipped as an international civil airport and used while Paraparaumu is being developed into a “full-scale inter- “ national airport ” to serve the southern part of the North Island and the north of the South Island. Mr Nash would not, however, abandon the multi-million project at Rongotai, the only aifport which in the long run can serve conveniently Wellington’s air transport needs; and it is clear that what Mr Nash wants for Wellington is nothing less than what Wellington modestly demands—not one airport but three. Mr Nash was speaking, of course, as a politician responsible to no-one but his Wellington constituents; and he could afford to be liberal in his views of what they and their neighbours should have in the way of facilities paid for out of the national purse. Any Wellington residents tempted to think that his beguiling day-dreams might become the firm policy of a government which Mr Nash hopes to lead, and which would be responsible not to Wellington alone but to the whole country, should reflect upon the Labour Government’s record in providing airports and air services. All of Wellington’s present airport

troubles stem from the stubborn refusal of that government, in the face of repeated recommendations from technical committees and commissions of inquiry, to get on with the essential and urgent job of developing Rongotai • and to accept the political liability ' of having to rehouse some hundreds of residents of a predominantly Labour district. The same government allowed—even compelled, by its inactivity—its nationalised airline to use airports which were grossly unsafe. Mr Nash is unrepentant. He would, apparently, subject air crews and passengers to the same dangers at Paraparaumu which they avoided, as much by good luck as by good management, before Rongotai was closed to the main internal services because of public uneasiness and the strong representations of the airline pilots. Mr Nash should give the authority for his assertion that “for “ less than £ 1,000,000 ” Paraparaumu could be made an international airport. In the days when Labour politicians were Ministers of the Crown and were responsible for expenditure on airports and air services—the days when government spokesmen were trying to convince the country that one international airport at Auckland was ample for the country’s needs—Mr Nash’s colleague, Mr F. Jones (Minister n> charge of Civil Aviation), was ready and perhaps glad to accept the uncontroverted expert evidence to the contrary. In the House of Representatives on October 5, 1949, he said that “ although Paraparaumu “ was being developed, it would “never be a first-class aerodrome”.

It is just possible that Mr Nash’s £1,000,000, perhaps an optimistic estimate, would make Paraparaumu fit to handle DC-6 aircraft without undue risk; but it would still not be an airport of international standard, and the risk would still be greater than the International Civil Aviation _ Organisation considers justifiable. It is extremely unlikely that Paraparaumu could be extended to handle safely the larger and faster aircraft which will replace the DC-6’s in the near future. Mr Nash’s proposition, then, is this. Ohakea should be used, at an extra cost to the general taxpayer of £20,000 to £30,000, until Paraparaumu has been prepared, at a cost to the general taxpayer of £ 1,000,000, more or less, to take DC-6’s—assuming that the risks of a sub-standard airport are accepted. Each airport in turn would be abandoned by the international airline, Paraparaumu as soon as the “ interim ” DC-6 airliners give way to something bigger arid more demanding on airport facilities. At the end of it all, Wellington people would be where they are now—dependent on the early completion of Rongotai to give them a quick, cheap, and convenient air connexion with an international

airport which measures up to international standards. It should not be overlooked that even in his expansiveness on behalf of his friends Mr Nash has not wholly abandoned caution. He has acknowledged “ valid “ arguments ” for the Royal New Zealand Air Force “ retaining ” Ohakea as its jet fighter base. This might be enough to save a responsible Minister being called upon to make good the promises, expressed or implied, of an irresponsible politician. But irresponsibility has certainly had its say.