Woolworths Expansion King Country Freezing Works Site

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 10

Woolworths Expansion

King Country Freezing Works Site

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, July 27. Te Kuiti has won the battle of the sites for a proposed farmer-owned co-operative freezing works in the King Country. A report from two private consultants received by the King Country investigating committee has pinpointed a farm four miles to the north of Te Kuiti as the most suitable site. The recommendatioh was

made in a 10-page report from Mr R. H. Bevin, former director of the Meat and Wool Boards’ Economic Service, and Mr F. C. Stanley, general manager of the Alliance Freezing Company, in Southland. Although the works are still very far from a reality, the decision has been greeted with jubilation in Te Kuiti and disappointment in Taumarunui. The Mayor of Te Kuiti (Mr J. D. Bayne), who is secretary of the investigating committee, said he was “delighted” with the report A works would mean' a major upsurge for his town, he said. The chairman of the committee, Mr M. O. Loughnan, said the consultants had laid particular emphasis on the value to a Te Kuiti works of the dairy cattle population in the Otorohanga county, just to the north. The site is not far from the Te Kuiti aerodrome, close to a river, the railway and the Kapuni gas pipeline. The consultants based their choice entirely on the flow of cattle which they said was to the north. However, with the expansion of the West Taupo area in the next 20 years there was no reason why the establishment of a works at Taumarunui would not be a worth-while proposij tion.

Mr Loughnan said his committee would now get down to preparing a case to put to the farmers, who would be required to find 40 per cent of the sl2m cost of the works.