The Press WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1956. Rongotai

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 14

The Press WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1956. Rongotai

The impatience of the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr Shand) ;to hurry on with the construction of the Wellington airport at Rongotai is understandable. Rongo-* tai is the essential hub of internal air transport, on which the! successful operation of the new | Viscount liners and other proposed i services will depend. It is disappointing at this stage, after the agreement between the Wellington City Council and the Government has been in force for seven years, to find that the old City Council had been trying to modify the terms, and that completion of the I job may be delayed. The sudden waning of Wellington enthusiasm for Rongotai has been caused, in part, by the knowledge that the cost I will be increased by the adoption of the functional plan prepared by i the American consultant, Mr ! Melville B. Borgeson, though it is i recognised that his recommendations jmust be adopted. Wellington ' opinion has probably been | influenced also by the realisation 1 that Rongotai will not be an j international airport something that the rest of New Zealand had long understood. Now that the State has spent £1,500.000 on its share of the work and the City Council practically nothing, the Wellington request for still more help looks rather like an attempt to hold the Government co ransom. But even without the Government’s need to protect this heavy investment of public money, no alternative to Rongotai would be practicable. The City Council, therefore, has as much interest as the Government in getting Rongotai finished. This argument should weigh with the newly-elected City Council when it reviews its predecessor’s policy. So should the consideration that agreements entered into in good faith by local authorities should be honoured. Otherwise co-operation between the central government and local government would become almost impossible. Some case might be made for giving Wellington, as the seat of government, special terms for the construction of its airport. In tact, Wellington has had that consideration. Under the original agreement the Government undertook to pay half the cost, the Wellington City Council one-third, and the Wellington Harbour Board one-sixth. The Government later agreed to meet the Harbour Board’s share of some modifications, which increased the State contribution to two-thirds on these items. In addition, the Government is providing the Paraparaumu airport without cost to the city of Wellington. While other cities are finding half the cost of airports, Wellington is getting two airports for the price of one, with a discount off the price. The concern of the Wellington City Council with the increase in its rates needed to meet the higher costs at Rongotai is legitimate. The council should, however, recognise that the additional expenditure recommended by Mr Borgeson will eventually make Rongotai a much more profitable venture, and that in any case it should not try to put the immediate rate burden on to the general taxi payer. The proposal to raise airport j charges steeply at Rongotai, though supported by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, is not the solution to the City Council’s difficulties. The present scale of airport charges has been designed to be high enough to meet annual costs, including interest, within a reasonable time, say 10 years, without driving business away. If these I charges are raised too high air traffic I will be so discouraged that the I expensive facilities will never pay their way. The best course for the Wellington City Council is to compose its inherited differences with the Government and set out, as advised by Mr Borgeson, to increase the airport’s business by making it more, and not less, attractive to travellers and to the industries it can serve.