Meeting today on future of Chathams

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 9

Meeting today on future of Chathams

What the future holds for the Chatham Islands may depend on a public meeting at Waitangi this evening. Island residents will gather to talk to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Tapsell, the member of Parliament for Lyttelton, Mrs Hercus, whose electorate includes the Chathams, and the chairman of the Chatham Islands review committee, Mr John Keaney, of Rotorua. The residents have been sent a Government discussion paper which will probably form the basis of a report on the future of the Chathams.

They have been asked to attend the meeting and give their views on the paper. Mr Frank O’Connell, the Chathams County Clerk, said yesterday that the discussion paper covered many aspects of island life, including the fishing, farming, and

tourist industries, the shipping and air services to the Chathams, as well as local body administration and the future of the meatworks.

The paper is believed to contain a number of options about the future of each of these services and industries, some of which are more hard-hitting than others.

Mr O’Connell said that the paper was embargoed to this evening. The paper was prepared as a result of a visit to the islands late last year of the Chatham Islands review team, which includes senior officers of the Internal Affairs Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of Transport, Maori Affairs Department, Treasury, and the State Services Commission.

The Government party will fly to the Chathams this morning.