CHATHAM ISLANDS Call For Funds To Develop

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31317, 13 March 1967, Page 3

CHATHAM ISLANDS Call For Funds To Develop

(New Zealand Press Association)

WAITANGI (Ghathams), March 12.

The Chatham Islands are crying out for development. Expenditure of money could turn the area into a valuable New Zealand asset.

This is the view held by many of the Chathams people, including the county chairman, Mr D. L. Holmes.

“We haven’t got enough finance available to exploit all the potential,” Mr Holmes told the New Zealand Press Association in Waitangi.

“Lf it was exploited, we would be a great asset to New Zealand instead of what in some quarters, has been considered a liability. We would not agree that we are a liability," he added. He ranks as priorities land and sea development a cen-trally-situated airstrip, and reading. For the Chatham Islanders the biggest problem of the moment is transport. In the view of Mr Holmes a centrally situated airstrip is what the area requires. Not only for passengers but eventually for flying out crayfish and frozen meat products as a commercial venture. HAUPUPU STRIP

When the Sunderland flying boat service ceases later this month, a replacement service will use Haupupu—an airstrip at the extremity of Chatham Island.

The use of Haupupu—apart from the inconvenience of

getting there—rules out the economics of transporting by air the commodities that the islands may eventually be able to produce, according to Mr Holmes.

On land development, Mr Holmes pointed out that the Chathams’ agricultural potential has been estimated at

one million sheep—as against the 140,000 carried at present.

“There are tens of thousand of acres that could be cheaply and economically developed,” he commented. “If we were assisted in some way in developing land

we could become a great source of assistance to New Zealand.” Linked with land development is the development of the fishing industry. CRAY INDUSTRY

At present the crayfish industry is a thriving concern—but how long it will last can not be foreseen. Mr Holmes maintains that other fish should be taken—particularly, the blue cod and groper of the Chathams waters.

“If the sea , was farmed, there would be a source of fish here indefinitely.”

Today Chatham Island itself has some 34 miles of formed roads. Doubling that number would give access to a great amount of land for development, according to the county chairman.

Moreover, the existing roads—none of them sealed—could b e improved. The Chathams have an annual income of about £22,000 Wharf-running expenses at the main centre, Waitangi, take about one-third of that The remainder goes into administration and what is termed general rate what would be collected on land. LAND RATING In the Chathams there is no rating on land. The money comes from an import and export levy on all cargo. “Up to the present it has worked very well,” Mr Holmes said. Local funds are supplemented by the National Roads Board and some money from the roads vote toward- backcountry access. Mr Holmes was asked whether he saw a critical time ahead for the Chathams. “We’re at the point where too much is invested here privately to lose,” he replied. “But we haven’t got enough to jump ahead quickly.” H e referred to a suggestion sometimes made that everyone should be taken off th islands.

“That would not only be a very personal loss. It would be a national loss as well,” Mr Holmes commented.

“If everybody here were to step out, there would be others only too willing to step in.”