REORGANISING AIR FORCE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28801, 23 January 1959, Page 7

REORGANISING AIR FORCE

Effect Of Delay At Mangere

Because of delays in getting some positive action in the construction of Auckland’s international airport at Mangere, it now appeared as if the reorganisation plans for the Royal New Zealand Air Force would be set back, said the Minister of Defence (Mr Connolly), aboard H.M.N.Z.S. Royalist, in a radio-telephone interview with “The Press” last evening. He said a key point in the whole reorganisation scheme was that Whenuapai was to be an operational Air Force station. Now it appeared as if there would have to be a slowing down in the phasing of reorganisation. The reorganisation of the Air Force was to have reached its peak in 1960, and to have been completed in 1961, the Minister said. The Minister said that according to a report to the Air Department brought down by the Treasury on Wednesday, there would be some delay in implementing the scheme of reorganisation. “The report pointed out that with the delay in proceeding with Mangere the Air Force would not be able to use Whenuapai entirely as an Air Force station,” he said. Two reports had been submitted to the Treasury by the Air Department and the Cabinet works committee, and' Wednesday’s report had been received in reply, said the Minister. The Air Department and works committee would now have to consult further “to see what they could do” in having the original reorganisation plan carried out. Consultation and preparation*'of a second report to the Treasury would probably take a fortnight, and he hoped that the Treasury would consider the matter again “at an early date,” the Minister said.