DISPUTE ABOUT RONGOTAI

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 12

DISPUTE ABOUT RONGOTAI

FINDING OF ANNUAL COSTS WELLINGTON COUNCIL’S DISCUSSION (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 18. Negotiations between the Wellington City Council’s airport committee and the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr T. P. Shand) have broken down over the commitee’s determination to prevent the city’s ratepayers from having to find an estimated £77,000 a year extra for Rongotai airport. This information was given last night by Cr. J. A. Bateman, a member of the airport committee, in a lively—and at times acrimonious—debate by the City Council on the issues blocking agreement between the council and the Government. Cr. D. A. Highet claimed that councillors had been “kept in the dark” and that the airport committee had been “almost a secret service society” in its dealings over Rongotai. During the debate, too, Mr Shand was criticised for some of his statements about the council’s attitude. “I don’t know whether the Minister feels that by using extravagant terms he can dragoon the council into line, but that is not the way to conduct public business,” said Cr. B L. Dallard. Cr. J. G. Churchill said that some of the Minister’s statements had impugned the council’s honour. By a big majority, the council decided to continue its negotiations with the Government and also to seek the city solicitor’s opinion about the legal effect of the correspondence on the basis of which the Rongotai project had been started. Cr. Bateman explained that the £77,000 he referred to was the amount the ratepayers would have to find if outgoings from Rongotai were not held to include the council’s’loan charges. The Minister was adamant that they should not, and the committee was claiming that they should, he said.