ATTRACTING INDUSTRY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 16

ATTRACTING INDUSTRY

Role Of Local Organisations Although there was a definite need for ah organisation, possibly the South Island Local Bodies Association, to Apeak with one voice for the South Island, it still remained for individual and provincial organisations to point out the advantages of their own areas for industry, said the Canterbury Public Relations Officer (Mr E. G. Beckett) yesterday. Mr Beckett was commenting on the reported remarks of Mr J. H. George, member of Parliament for Central Otago, in the House of Representaaives. who said that the South Island had too many organisations trying to* persuade industry to come south, and that a single organisation speaking for the whole island would be more effective. “It is doubtful if one organisation could achieve the results of individual organisations, which have built up files of statistical information about their own locale,’’ Mr Beckett said. Commenting on Mr George’s statement that cheap power “was not the whole story” where the South Island attempted to attract industry, Mr Beckett said that in Canterbury it had long been appreciated that cheap power was not the major part of any campaign to sell industry—but the guarapteed availability of power was. The guaranteed availability of power went hand in hand with the availability of land, labour, trarisport and communications, building costs, water supply, and many other factors which had to be taken into account by any sizeable concern. Regarding Mr George’s statement that the South Island could not afford to be “too choosy” about industries it would accept, and that there had been “a horrible outcry” at a suggestion that an oil refinery might be placed at New Brighton or along the Canterbury coast, Mr Beckett said at no stage had he heard any suggestion that the oil refinery should be placed on the Canterbury coast, with the exception of Banks Peninsula. “This is a case where local organisations can take into account all the various requirements for an industry and recommend the best possible site in their area,” Mr Beckett ?aid. “The beaches of New Brighton would certainly not have been suitable for oceangoing tankers.”