Comment from the Capital

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 18

Comment from the Capital

hour’s flying from Wellingr ton. This means that he can “camp” in Wellington and maintain his home in Nelson, flying home on Friday afternoons and returning on Tuesday mornings. From an early age he was active in the Labour Party in Christchurch, serving on the executive and campaign committee of Miss Mabel Howard in Sydenham in her last years. He helped in the transfer of Mr N. E. Kirk from Lyttelton to Sydenham, and was his vice-chairman for a time. At 23 he stood unsuccessfully for the Nelson City Council (“It could be called unsuccessful — I polled sec-ond-lowest.”). Then he sold the small grocery business which he had been operating in Christchurch from the age of 21 (“seven days a week for 5| years”), moved to Nelson, into a bigger store, and after two or three years opened a second supermarket and then a fruit and vegetable business. Today these businesses employ more than 40 people. He was not openly active in politics in Nelson, but stood several years ago for the Nelson City Council, and this time polled secondhighest. At that time three Labour people approached him and asked him to consider the possibility of standing for Parliament when the lat- Sir Stanley Whitehead retired.

He describes the life of a Parliamentarian as “an eight-day-a-week job,” round the clock. “You work through your week-end, and you don’t really feel there is such a thing as a week-end. I’m not complaining, because when the House is sitting the week-ends are the only time you can get close to your consitutuents.” This worries him. “While the House is sitting, I am four days a week in Wellington, away from my electorate, my home and my family. It is only at weekends I can get close to my constituency. What concerns me is that the longer I am in the House, as each day pusses, I feel further away from my constituents.” He maintains an office in Trafalgar Street, Nelson, where he is available every Friday evening and on Mondays leaving the rest of the week-end for functions and appearances. Some members who represent the more remote seats would envy Mr Courtney his availability to his electorate. He is on the Labour caucus agriculture committee, with Messrs C. J. Moyle, B. G. Barclay, K. Wetere and P. Blanchfield, and enjoys their company. This committee travels extensively within Nev/ Zealand. He has not yet had an overseas trip, and has in fact withdrawn from the offer of one. His philosophy

He also had approaches from Social Credit, and a neighbour asked him to offer for the National Party. "The time leading up to selection as Labour candidate would have been for me the unhappiest days of my life,” he told me. “It was an attractive seat to win, and I don’t think you should want something too badly ...”

is “not to want things too badly.” Use of the question-and-answer system has been one of Mr Courtney’s strong activities. He has asked questions and has received answers on such matters as the loss of the cabinet and joinery class (transferred to Petone from Nelson Polytechnic), the problems of Port Nelson, and the transport system generally. .

Of Nelson's so-called “notional railway,” a unique subsidy system by which goods and people travelling by road are charged at railway rates, he commented: “I am glad to see that continuing. If the Government took that subsidy away from Nelson, that would cut off the final link. We’d drift off then as a separate island. I would go for complete independence on that one.”

He is unhappy about shipping. “We have our new roll-on facility, and a service to Sydney, but we are losing a great deal of trade (about $550,000 worth of timber trade alone) because of the lack of a direct service to Melbourne. Of the six New Zealand roll-on-roll-off ports, Nelson is the only one which does not have a direct connection with Melbourne. We are paying a subsidy for having our freight transhipped from Sydney to Melbourne, and this is pricing us out of the market.”