HAREWOOD JETS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29674, 18 November 1961, Page 14

HAREWOOD JETS

Otago Support Urged (N.Z. Press DUNKDIN, Nov. 16. The Otago Development Council should lend its weight to having an international airport at Harewood the chairman of the council (Sir Leonard Wright) told the council’s annual meeting tonight. \ The airport should be brought up to standard as quickly as possible. Sir Leonard Wright said, “and not wait for five or six years, or even longer, for Mangere to come in.” The council should get behind the move to cut through the red-tape and nonsense. An international airport at Harewood would bring thousands of tourists to the South Island. New Zealand was supposed to be short of overseas funds, he said. Hawaii, in 1946. had a total tourist income of £2 million. In 1960 the tourist income was £4sm, and this year it was expected to increase further. Sir Leonard Wright said he had asked the reason for Hawaii’s terrific tourist upsurge, and had been told the answer in one word—-jets. If New Zealand waited five years for jets to come, it could lose millions of pounds. The meeting decided to draw the executive’s attention to the position at Harewood urgently, and that it should take the action thought necessary.