Minister Suggests Mayor Apologise

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29819, 11 May 1962, Page 14

Minister Suggests Mayor Apologise

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 10. The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine) said today he considered the Mayor of Auckland (Mr D. M. Robinson) owed him an apology. “But I.will leave this to your own good taste,” he added tn a lettei to Mr Robinson.

Mr McAlpine was commenting in a letter to Mr Robinson on a letter in which an aeronautical consultant, Mr A. E. Gibson told Mr Robinson he had been mistaken about an incident which occurred during a meeting in the Wellington Town Hall in April last year The letter related to statements made by Mr Robinson and by the Mayor of Mount RoakiM (Mr K W Hay) on Friday that they had been shown documentary evidence in Wellington 12 to 18 months ago that the Mangere project had been slowed down to coincide with T.E.AL.’s re-equipment and thus preserve its Tasman monopoly. Mr McAlpine replied that there was no such documentary evidence and that such a statement was demonstrably incorrect. Mr McAlpine quoted extracts from Mr Gibson's letter which said that during the meeting in Wellington a summary of discussions between the New Zeeland and Australian Governments was produced. It was a confidential report between an aviation agency in Australia and a New Zealand client.

Mr Gibson in his letter said that to the best of his knowledge neither the Minister nor the Air Secretary knew the report existed. He said he accepted no responsibility for the relevant portion of the summary, which said the Government would so restrict the alloca-

tion of funds for Mangere that this airport would probably not open until 1964 or later, depending on T.EA.L'e operations at that time. He could only conclude, continued the extracts quoted

by Mr McAlpine, that with the passage of a year Mr Robinson thought that the summary was an official letter

Mr McAlpine Mid Mr Gibsons letter seemed to make it clear that the alleged "letter from Canberra" wss nothing but speculation by a private Australian agent with no official backing and falsified bv subsequent events "I really think the public are entitled to expect serious matters to be dealt with more responsibly than this," Mr McAlpine added In Auckland. Mr Robinson raid today that the research portion of the report raid: ‘The New Zealand Government will so restrict the allocation of funds into the Mangere project that this airport will probably not open until 1964. and could even be delayed further depending on TEAL, operations at that time." Mr Robinson said that neither he nor the person who supplied him with the document could vouch for its accuracy.

Mr Robinson said the document was an unofficial aummary of discussions that had taken place early in 1961 between the Australian and New Zealand Governments over New Zealand's purchase of Australia's half-interest u> TEAL.