Shipowner Criticises N.Z. Method Of Airport Finance

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29234, 18 June 1960, Page 14

Shipowner Criticises N.Z. Method Of Airport Finance

{New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, June 17. The Government’s method of financing airport development was criticised by Mr F. K. Macfarlane, vice-president of the New Zealand Shipbwners’ Federation, at a meeting of the Wellington section of the Institute of Transport. He said there was a striking difference between the financing of airports, and harbour development. “It is the Government policy to provide 50 per cent, of the capital cost for aerodrome construction and also for the extension of existing aerodromes. Many of the smaller aerodromes are

being developed on this basis,’’ he said. “But the full cost of all construction and development work in a harbour is recovered from the users. There is no subsidy for harbour board development work. The total cost is recovered through increased charges on ships and cargo passing over the wharves. That is the policy of the user paying. “The coastal shipowners face a problem and loss of cargo with every kind of subsidised transport,” he said. “The Civil Aviation administration should, theoretically. -be the same to the air industry as the Marine Department is to the shipping industry. “But what do we find in practice? We find a Civil Aviation vote of millions of pounds being absorbed very largely into the Government expenditures year by year, with only a small portion being recovered from users.” Only recently the Marine Department had notified ship-owners that all fees were to be substantially increased because the department had found that the present fees were insufficient to meet outgoings.