JETS FOR HAREWOOD

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29913, 29 August 1962, Page 15

JETS FOR HAREWOOD

Development Urged (N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, August 28. Until Mangere Airport is completed. New Zealand will loose at least £5 million in overseas funds every year unless Harewood Airport is made suitable for international jet services carrying American and other tourists, according to the central and southern Pacific director of Pan-American World Airways (Mr W. J. Mullahey).

“It seems that the Government is struggling over a mountain at Mangere, when it could easily swallow the molehill at Harewood,” Mr Mullahey said tonight.

He said that in view of New Zealand’s need to diversify its economy should Britain join the European Common Market, the tourist industry should be developed. “The industry is ready made and waiting for development," he said. “The South Island has twice the tourist attraction of the north, but until an international jet service is established at Harewood there are no suitable facilities to cater for tourists.” The chairman of the Otago Development Council. Sir Leonard Wright—with whom Mr Mullahey has been staying—said: “If New Zealand wants to spend the next four years until the completion of Mangere in glorious isolation, then the Government should do nothing about Harewood. “If we want to earn overseas funds then Harewood must be developed. If Harewood is not developed, then it would appear that such funds are not needed.”