Power Concessions For Tops Industry

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29908, 23 August 1962, Page 15

Power Concessions For Tops Industry

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, Aug. 22. The South Canterbury Electric Power Board and the Dunedin City Council have both offered power concessions to the wool tops factory if it is established in their supply areas. The South Canterbury board has decided to offer free electricity for one year to the factory if it is built in the board’s area.

The Mayor of Dunedin (Mr T. K. S. Sidey) said today that the city had offered a “very worth-while concession extending for several years” for the factory if it was established in its power area. He said he preferred not to give the details of the offer, to avoid the danger of possible “bidding.” But, he said, the tops factory would not 'be an industry using a great quantity of power anyway. Sir Leonard Wright, chairman of the Otago Development Council, said it seemed to him that the Dunedin City Council could be in a position to "ait least repeat the offer it made of free power

for three years” which was the means of establishment of the Dominion linseed oil factory in Dunedin some years ago.

Since both Mosgiel and Roslyn mills in Dunedin were the oldest and major mills in the country, it seemed that they would be situated in a position to influence the location of the factory, in the interests of the industry as a whole, said Sir Leonard Wright. “I was led to understand that until the recent merger between Alliance Textiles. Ltd., and the Bruce Woollen Mills Company, Dunedin was accepted as the site for this industry,” he said. “We have suggested to the mill interests the suitability of the Taieri Air Force station at Taieri for this new industry.” Mr G. W. ■ Lane, president of the Woollen Mills Association said tonight that so far only the City Council’s offer of a power concession had been received. No immediate decision on the site of the factory was likely.