‘Failure syndrome’ warning for Canty region

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 26

‘Failure syndrome’ warning for Canty region

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington Canterbury and much of the rest of New Zealand is heading for the “failure syndrome,” according "to figures on regional growth rates since 1971.

These figures have been taken from Labour Department employment surveys by geography department staff at Victoria University in Wellington. They have published their work before the report awaited from the Government’s ad hoc committee on national development, which is intended to provide a blue-print for the national economic growth (development) strategy. The Labour Party says that since the mid 1970 s warning sirens have been sounding for the “failure syndrome.” Compensatory policies might be needed for areas shown not to have benefited from the major development projects, said Mr W. P. Jeffries (Lab., Heretaunga.) The figures show that seven regions have benefited since 1971 in terms of employment — Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty, Auck-

land, Northland, Waikato and Nelson. They all experienced a steady growth in employment which by 1982 was 15 to 20 per cent up on 1971 figures. A second group of regions had experienced moderate growth of 8 to 12 per cent — Southland, Marlborough, Taranaki, East Cape and South Canterbury. But their growth had been erratic, and an improvement on only a small base. Four regions had only risen 2 to 5 per cent — Canterbury, Wellington, Wairarapa and the West Coast. All four had experienced quite strong growth until 1977, but their employment totals had dropped since then. Two regions, Otago and Wanganui had a 2 per cent drop in employment between 1971 and 1982. Mr Jeffries said these figures showed that Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin were all missing out badly on development growth. The research identified five factors to account for the trends.—

® The extent of the production and processing of prim-

ary products in the regions from the Government’s rural production investment strategy; © The location and extent of natural resources, including links with the Government’s major development project strategy, 0 City labour and consumer markets; © The comparative advantage for some regions of industrial development; @ Transport factors such as internal networks and links to export networks. A number of regions, including the city areas of Christchurch and Wellington, had not had the sustained job growth of others benefiting from the Government’s rural investment and major project policies, the researchers found. Mr Jeffries said development projects needed to be found for the urban areas, where 80 per cent of the population lived. Science and technology investment was needed for manufacturing, not just horticulture and energy-based projects. New Zealand compared badly with other O.E.C.D. countries in this resnect.