RONGOTAI AIRPORT EXTENSION

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 157, 29 March 1941, Page 10

RONGOTAI AIRPORT EXTENSION

Need For Action Urged

CLEARANCE OF LAND TO EVANS RAY The need for an adequate airport for Wellington, not merely as the capital city, but as tbe most effective distributing centre for passengers and mails within the Dominion, and as an important terminal for overseas connexions, was stressed by the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Mr. R. H. Nimmo, in his address at the annual meeting of the chamber last night. “Wellington,” he said, “has already taken the lead as the chief air centre of the Dominion, and we will not be satisfied till the area lying between Rongotai aerodrome and Evans Bay has been cleared, making it possible for planes to get the necessary runway to take care of future development. “This extension presents several problems, but we suggest that such problems, and the finance, are as nothing in relation to the great advantages that the city., and the Dominion as a whole, would gain if this action were taken. “When a private shipping, company can expend £1,000,000 on a passenger vessel, the effective life of which might be taken at 25 years, how can the authorities hesitate in providing a lasting and an appreciating, rather than a depreciating, asset of much greater potential value and at less than half the cost?” Mr. Nimmo suggested that the Government and the local authorities should come to some agreement whereby the land required for extensions should be purchased and at a later date evacuated and the buildings removed. Such an act would call for fearless resolution, but it would ensure for the capital city and the Dominion an airport in a central and; strategic position, the future value ot which would be incalculable. <