POLICY FOR FUTURE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 10

POLICY FOR FUTURE

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“I have sometimes said that the closing of Dobson Mine was the best thing that had happened on the West Coast for a long time. It jolted the., community out of a state of complacency induced by what I have described as a heavy and prolonged injection of State paternalism,” wrote the Commissioner for the West Coast (Mr D. B. Dallas) in his 1971 annual progress report.

‘‘Hie complacency was combined- with an attitude that if tl|e region was backward, if was because it had been exploited in the past and Government now, due to Dobson closure, had an obligation to make even larger contributions tp the economy. : “In the minds of many people, including some news media personnel, the only future for the region lay in the bonanza or the State. These people lived week by week in expectation of some dramatic announcement,” said Mr Dallas. ‘•The first post-Dobson requirement was to reestablish morale by countering all the ‘disaster*

stories and the negative thinking. “This was tackled by enlisting news media resources and by talking to a wide range of community groups—both inside and outside the West Coast. "The region was highlighted as a land of opportunity. It was shown to have resources and potential in abundance. It had an assured'future with reasonable growth prospects—provided that people reacted positively to the challenge. “The second stage requirement was to make it clear that the rest of New Zealand did not owe the West Coast a living; that no-one had any inherent

right to be permanently sustained in any locality; that unless men could be productively and profitably employed it was better for them and for the economic health of the area that they move away.

“The region was advised to cease being preoccupied with the bonanza prospects in ilmenite, wood pulp, etcetera, and to set about forthwith- to, improve the quality of the human effort in all fields of endeavour within the day to day jurisdiction of local people. “If existing local industry was to expand there had to be more initiative and enterprise; more technical and management including marketing; knowhow; more co-operation and perseverance.

“Parochialism that has led to lack of co-operation had to be eliminated. Fragmentation that I repeatedly described as the worst disease on the West Coast had to be replaced by amalgamations and consolidation to produce the scale and management structure needed for growth and expansion,’’ Mr Dallas wrote.

“The community must accept not guaranteed economic security but comparative security based on competitive effort and a demand outside the region for West Coast products. “Industry must deliberately set out to compete in the national market and aven overseas. "If a three man industry 'ould expand to employ one extra man this whs a 33i per cent increase in employment in that business. Multiply that effort throughout the community and the whole economic outlook would change. “These were the themes expounded at every available opportunity."