DEVELOPMENT OF N.Z.

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28414, 22 October 1957, Page 10

DEVELOPMENT OF N.Z.

£lOOO Million Programme (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 21. New Zealanders must “think j big,” the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) told the Auckland Rotary Club today. In the next four years, he said, the country would spend £lOOO million on capital development. This was nearly as much as New Zealand i spent on capital development in | the last eight years. | “This is not a flight of imagina- . tion. an invitation to sqander- ' mania,” he said. “It is a most I sober estimate of the immediate future, based on the trends of the last few years.” The biggest investor would be private enterprise, which would spend £550 million—“a very conservative figure.” The Government would spend about £370 million in the next four years. Local Jjodies would spend £l3O million. By the end of 1962. New Zealand would have a population of 2.438.500—an annual increase of 50.000.

“That means that each year we have to build the equivalent of two cities the size of New Plymouth or Timaru, with their homes, hospitals, schools, shops and offices, and all their public utilities like electricity and telephones,” Mr Holyoake said.

Government plans for hydroelectric development “running ahead into the 1970'5” would cost an estimated £235 million.

Roads Boards expenditure will amount to nearly £9O million in the next four years. “We have spent about £4B million on improving our railways in the last eight years, and in the next four years we shall find a further £l7 million for this purpose.”

Apart from its very large loans for housing, the Government would find some £4O million for direct housing construction in the next four years.

“The third million of population is within measurable distance.” Mr Holyoake said. "The fourth million is on the horizon.”

United States Air Force Display. —More than 5000 persons saw a display of Antarctic equipment at Timaru last week. Arranged by Lieutenant William Cook, of the United States Air Force, the display included films on the Antarctic. and these were shown at a number of schools. On Thursday a Globemaster flew from Christchurch and made a low flight over Timaru.