$2M plan to improve roads

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 28

$2M plan to improve roads

Labour would spend $2 million to improve roads which were the scenes of frequent accidents, the member of Parliament forYaldhurst, Mr M. A. Connelly (Labour), told an election meeting at the Avonhead School. The National Roads Board would ask district roads councils to identify areas needing attention. The Ministry of Transport might also be asked to report. Accidents resulted in deaths, serious injuries, damage to motor-vehicles and goods carried, insurance losses leading to higher premiums, hospital and medical costs. Absenteeism,

and loss of productivity and profitability, said Mr Connelly. He also said that irrigation was the key to increased agricultural production and that the South Island offered “tremendous potential” for irrigation and the intensification of agriculture and horticulture. The establishment of processing industries to handle crops for exports and domestic use was one of the main benefits of irrigation. The potential for the daily supply of fresh vegetables, fruit, meats, dairy, and horticultural products to the Northern Hemisphere by airfreight was another.