Political motive seen in ports reshuffle

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 6

Political motive seen in ports reshuffle

Bv

PHILIP WORTHINGTON

Lyttelton in particular, and the South Island in general, appear to have suffered in the restructuring of the Ports Authority, announced yesterday.

The sudden, not to say, ham-fisted, way in which the balance of interest in the authority was changed ) leaves the South island with; only one resident member on: the five-man body Two new members of the! authority were announced' yesterday by the Minister of I Transport (Mr McLachlan). Both of them are chair-i men of North Island harbour! boards. The new chairman of the] authority is Mr D. N. McKay. chairman of the North-! land Harbour Board and a former Minister of Transport I He succeeds Sir John Mc-j Alpine who has headed the authority since its establishment in 1969. Sir John, now; 71, is understood to be in ill | health and to have asked toi be replaced. The other new appointee is i Mr K. S. Calder, of Rotorua, who is chairman of the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board. His appointment follows the expiration of the term of Mr J. Mathison, a former Labour Minister of Transport. But Mr Mathison, whose term expired on August 4, has yet to receive formal notification of his replacement. Although no-one is prepared to say so —

(particularly having regard to • the delicate state of the bal- ■ ance on the application by 11 Port Chalmers for a second i container crane — there is i! widespread opinion in Canterbury that Mr Mathison’s ■ dismissal is political. I; He has been a tireless f i worker for port development, but critics of his dismissal ■ ; suggest privately that his •Idissenting judgment on the Port Chalmers’ application i[might have persuaded the I Government to look else- • I where. i Efforts to reach Mr Mc- . I Lachlan last evening were .[unsuccessful and his secilretaries, naturally, could • 'make no comment; but the '[National Party’s tenuous ' hold on Dunedin seats com(bined with Mr Mathison’s arguments for delaying Port ;| Chalmers’s second crane are .[felt by some to have persuaded the Cabinet. Mr Mathison, who is 75, might have been ruled out because of his age. What- • ever the reason he has yet to be informed officially what i will happen. He will fly to , Wellington today for a twoI day meeting of the author- • itv but “according to one lot of information” he got from • a radio station, he has no • authority after Wednesday

[evening — the time the! radio station had heard he! was officially dismissed. Inquiries by “The Press” to the Minister’s office, however, suggest that his term will extend until the local bodv elections late in October. At this time the two new appointees will have re-i linquished their harbour: board chairmanships and be free to take the authority positions. Mr Mathison would not be drawn last evening on the new appointments other than to say “it seems strange that I am advised by the media before by the Minister. But I have heard of political appointments and I have experienced political disappointments. “I would have been happy to carry on," he said. The chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board (Mr J. G. Brand) was also reticent, but he did say: “I am very disappointed that we are left with only one member of the authority resident in the South Island.” That member is Captain J. B. McGowan. The other members of the authority, both North Island residents, are Messrs A. T. Gandell. a former general manager of New Zealand Railways, and F. A. Reeves.