WORK IN THE PAST

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29366, 19 November 1960, Page 4

WORK IN THE PAST

I ask for your support on November 26 for myself and the party I am honoured to represent. I am privileged to represent Labour in the campaign for the Westland electorate and do so with full knowledge of the great worth of. the grand men who have represented the West Coast in the past/ The track towards progress and security blazed by Dick Seddon. Paddy Webb, Harry Holland, Jim O’Brien (all of happy memory) and by our great warrior and advocate, Jim Kent, will inspire me, if elected, to do everything in my power to carry on their great work in the interests of Labour and Westland. I was bom on the West Coast, have lived and worked here all my life, and have the utmost faith in Westland and her people. The Coast has a splendid past. I firmly, believe’ it has a glorious future. Our natural resources, and they are many, have hardly been touched yet, although over the years Westland has fed millions of pounds worth of timber, coal, •gold and farm production into the national economy of New Zealand. I believe the Coast will come into its own when the population of New Zealand increases, when more money is provided to improve our roads and give access instead of isolation to the different parts of Westland and when the amenities common to city dwellers are bestowed on the people in rural areas encouraging them to rear their families’ in the decent conditions they deserve. I agree wholeheartedly, with the recommendations of the West Coast Committee of Inquiry that a West Coast regional development fund be set aside specially from Government funds to finance enterprises and land development that will benefit the province and New Zealand. I believe that in any new enterprises that will be put into Operation the workers should' be given the chance of taking share capital, even on a small basis. This principle should apply particularly to the two proposed factory and mill projects to utilise timber that may be operated at Reefton and Ross. Improved Port S My policy has been to advocate new industries for the West Coast, and the first “must” is an improved port. An improved wharf at Jacksons Bay is*. also necessary to assist in the coming industry of shipping white pine to Australia. The value of our tourist attractions cannot be exaggerated. What is needed to develop tourism is a speedier completion of the Haast Pass road and the early completion of the Franz Josef hotel-motels. I will endeavour, if elected, to press continuously “for more money and more big machinery to improve our reading, both for the benefit of land development and tourism.

I believe the future of Westland is interlocked with the Labour Government. A sympathetic and progressive Government .is a golden insurance against our decline and Labour realises just how urgently Westland needs a helping hand. We have a lot to lose should Labour not be returned.