THE PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1989. Setting up the goals

Press, 2 June 1989, Page 8

THE PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1989. Setting up the goals

This week-end’s Going for Goals forum in the Christchurch Town Hall is exposed to many risks. Because of its purpose, it deserves to succeed; because of its nature, the forum could founder. As a new and vigorous thrust to promote the best interests of Christchurch, and the region on which the city depends, the forum has attracted sympathetic attention that should keep it off the rocks.

The process that the forum begins will remain an adventure until clear goals are distilled from what will undoubtedly be a flood of conflicting ideas. Such a flood is inevitable, even if all who attend arrive with a sense of common purpose. In spite of the economic difficulties that have beset Christchurch, the timing of this thrust towards a more coherent effort for recovery and progress should give the forum some real confidence. This is not an occasion for complaint. It is a time for awareness of what the city is and for thinking out what it will be. The loss or depletion of several large manufacturing industries in recent years has created an impression that Christchurch is no longer a manufacturing city. Some of the businesses that declined or moved were producing consumer goods; others, in the class of heavy industry, were producing heavy machinery and materials, mainly for public works, for which there is no longer demand. The freeing of imports, the consolidation of industries elsewhere and a decline in major construction have created some conspicuous gaps in the Christchurch manufacturing scene.

Even so, it is wrong to suppose that this is no longer a manufacturing city. Many of the smaller, specialised but less conspicuous businesses are doing reasonably well, and their numbers are growing. Manufacturing output has been remarkably steady. Perhaps too much faith has been put in what are commonly called the high-technology industries, important, new and growing as they are. They have not been big consumers of labour; and, until more can be established, they do not represent the main hope for people who are now unemployed. For all that, we can look with satisfaction at the technology park that has been established on the north of the city as a concept that should attract growth. Christchurch has been a market town, a manufacturing town, and a service centre for Canterbury. Throughout its history, Christchurch has prospered in a direct relationship to the prosperity of its hinterland. This relationship has been evident in a downward slide of the city’s economy. The relationship is going to continue and the rural community’s part will be ignored at Christchurch’s peril. On the broader front of farm prices and export opportunities, a local community can do little to change the economy of agriculture. In manufacturing and other industries the local community can do little, in isolation, to counter the state of the whole country’s economy. Nevertheless, Christchurch is part of the national economy and should be keen to do all that can be done, as a part, to foster the recovery of the whole.

More than this, Christchurch should be ready to benefit as quickly as possible from every sign of national recovery. In this it may already have an advantage. Although the loss of protection may still cause the collapse or

decline of businesses here, the kind of industries that have suffered from the loss of incentives or import protection, or were subject to business restructuring, began to disappear from Christchurch in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s. One can hope that the process of restructuring, which began early in this city, is now almost over. In the last year or so, the same trend has been hitting other cities much harder. This may bring no comfort on the over-all employment front; yet Christchurch and Canterbury can probably feel that at least the worst has passed.

Many people may regret that the restructuring of business has meant that Christchurch is a city with very few head offices of major companies and is not one of the main centres for financial management. This does not have to be counted as such a serious loss when the effects of -financial collapses, business office retrenchments, and Government restructuring elsewhere are weighed. Being a city that is close to the basics of making and creating may be no bad thing for Christchurch. One characteristic of efforts to promote growth in Christchurch has been that these have been far too fragmented. The admirable desire to foster the city’s progress has led to the establishment of too many bodies, no doubt working in the same general direction but finding that time, money and energy are spread too thinly to achieve the purpose. The timing of the Going for Goals meeting may itself imply one of the best answers. Christchurch is about to have, for the first time in its history, a single city administration. The next Christchurch City Council will have an unprecedented responsibility for the future of the city. It will also have the concentrated financial power to enact city-wide policies, and the means, if desired, to provide incentives to new businesses. This implies making choices and favouring some against others in the interests of growth. Above all, it means that, if a proper, central agency is set up by the council, many promotional organisations could cease going their separate ways. The Going for Goals organisation itself may well set the example, though it may well continue for some time to be a force that presses the council forward. Such pressure, fairly representing public opinion, may be needed when the council could easily be preoccupied with the problems of rearranging local-government functions. The change in government may also encourage a more positive and welcoming approach to new ideas and new business. Christchurch has long been cursed by too many long arguments over new ventures.

Jobs will be the final measure of success. A drift away from Christchurch to other places will not solve unemployment problems. Another generation will succeed those who leave if new jobs are not created. The quality of work is also important if a development programme is to succeed. Only by achieving the employment goal can Christchurch be assured of retaining the scale and quality of services and institutions it now enjoys. The financial support for Going for Goals from Trust Bank Canterbury and from the Christchurch City Council’s promotion working party adds to the expectation that this forum must succeed in taking the first step along a common path.