South boost pledged

Press, 26 August 1978, Page 2

South boost pledged

Suggested ways of stopping the drift of industry and people from the South Island to the North were propounded at the Social Credit conference yesterday In a free-for-all, hour-long! session, planned as a plat-1 form for South Island candi-j dates, there was general! agreement that there should! be a subsidy on freight,! allowing South Island manufacturers to pay no more: than their northern counter-! parts to get their goods to! the Auckland market. Other aid proposals for. the South Island included:— — A payroll subsidy for; firms; 1

— A freight subsidy for exports; — Cheaper electricity, to compensate for the cheaper Maui gas available in the north. ;! — Restoration of the Wel-ilington-Lyttelton shipping link. I! — Cheaper finance from the Development Finance 'Corporation. — A full-time Minister of 'Regional Development, with !staff in both Islands. The Socred candidate for Marlborough (Mr G. Kerr), I said that the South Island produced most of New Zealand’s export income, but

■ • this was spent to build up industry in the North Island. i “The South Island is being ■ relegated to a purely farming ■ scene,” he said. The candidate for Lyttel- - ton (Mrs Louise Moore), ; said Lyttelton was fast becoming a ghost town bei cause of the cancellation of » the Wellington link, and the fact that coastal shipping f was only two-thirds full, i In the end, the conference unanimously approved a resr olution proposed by the deputy leader (Mr J. Dwyer), j that Social Credit “vigor--1 ously pursue the need for • special South Island develt opment incentive policies.”