Licence Refused For Cableway

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31151, 30 August 1966, Page 1

Licence Refused For Cableway

(N.Z. Press Association)

DUNEDIN, August 29. The Government has refused to grant a £20,000 import licence for equipment vital to the aerial cableway planned for Bob’s Peak, Queenstown.

But Skyline Enterprises, Ltd., intends to press its claims for what it considers to be a first-class project for promoting tourism.

“We believe the Government must realise that facilities such as ours are essential, and that they will, in time, grant us an import licence,” the acting chairman of directors, Mr C. M. Broad, of Invercargill, said today. It was hoped the aerial cableway—the first in New Zealand—would be in use this summer.

It would extend from the foot of the peak to a chalet built by the company 1530 feet above Queenstown. The Customs Department

was approached six months ago for an import licence for the equipment needed from overseas for the cableway. “It is disappointing at this stage to have the project turned down—especially when the amount of the licence, £20,000, seems so small in relation to the benefit not only to Queenstown and the South Island tourist industry, but also to New Zealand as a whole.

“An aspect that makes the refusal of the licence doubly disappointing is that the company has not asked the Government for any financial assistance.

“But we have had to ask for one thing, an import licence, which has been turned down —and at a time when the Government knows that foreign exchange earnings of the tourist industry are in the order of £1 million a year of foreign exchange for each £1 million invested.”

Mr Broad said quotations for the supply of equipment for the cableway had been

obtained from a number of sources. The company had selected the one with the largest percentage of local content. Less than half the cost of the cableway called for overseas funds. “We feel this is commendable and think the Government would agree.” The company will ask Mr B. E. Taiboys, member of Parliament for Wallace, to help. It hopes to see the Minister of Tourism (Mr Eyre) when he is in Invercargill next month.

“In the meantime we must again stop work which was recommenced only a few weeks ago.”

The Mayor of Queenstown (Mr G. D. Cochrane) said the Queenstown Borough Council was firmly behind the company. The Otago Development Council would be willing to assist the company in obtaining an import licence, said its chairman, Mr T. K. S. Sidey. Mr Broad said the company had been encouraged by the

Tourist and Publicity Department and particularly by its general manager, Mr R. S. Odell.

“But it is very frustrating to be encouraged by one hand of the Government if another snatches away any chance of bringing proposals to reality.”