Twizel scheme 'not workable’

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 1

Twizel scheme ' not workable’

Wellington reporter The Government has effectively dismissed the proposition to save Twizel, .put up by an Australian entrepreneur, Mr Howard Hall. : The Minister of Works and Development (Mr W. L. Young) said yesterday that Mr Hall had failed to come up with the basics of a “workable” scheme. He had no security finance, had not got an enthusiastic public response, and had apparently failed to receive support from the Mackenzie County Council, which was willing to zone to accommodate the town in its district scheme if its maintenance would not be a burden on ratepayers. Mr Young said Mr Hall had offered the Government little more than a 90-day option, and money signed over to the Government as it became avail-

able from buyers of houses.

The scheme was “airyfairy” from the beginning. Mr Hall acknowledged' the hurdles then, and he had not really surmounted any of them, Mr Young said. His advertisements for buyers for the Twizel properties said offers' were not binding. The : Ministry’s senior executive officer - (Power), Mr B; ■ G.' Perry, ' said yesterday that he: had seen Mr Hall two days before he left New Zealand. “I think he realised he was running into problems.” He was not sure that Mr Hall would return to New Zealand. To Mr Hall’s reported comments that lack of firm Government policy on the town’s future had greatly dampened public enthusiasm for his scheme, Mr Perry said no one Government, department: could take final re-

sponsibility- for Twizel as several were involved. Departments’ clear obligations would have quickly been sorted out had Mr Hall’s scheme showed promise. This was not a

valid obstacle to Mr Hall s venture. The Ministry of Works was < leaving its options open. Although the Government had agreed gradually to run down Twizel by about 1985 this was subject to any viable proposition to keep it, Mr Perry said. Mr Hall’s scheme was one of several serious proposals to keep the town, and the Government was obliged to consider it, but it had not met the criteria. Another proposal to keep Twizel — as a town of 300 houses, 100 for permanent works staff, and 200 for itinerant workers and holiday-makers — is now before the Government. It has been put up by the Ministry of Works and Development. The Mackenzie County Council will consider correspondence from Mr Hall at its regular meeting on Friday.