COSTLY BUSINESS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1935, Page 12

COSTLY BUSINESS

DEVELOPING RONGOTAI

ESTIMATE OF £128,000

TENTATIVE APPItOVAL

The development of Rongolai to entitle the landing field to B grade classification (suitable for all types of aircraft) is going to be a costly business, for a report placed before the City Council yesterday afternoon by.the City Engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke, gave an estimate of £128,000, a figure which caused considerable surprise to certain councillors, who expressed doubts whether, after that further expenditure, Rongotai would be the most suitable airport for Wellington. The plan was "tentatively approved."

The report of the Airport Committee (the Mayor, Mr.- T. C. A Hisloo, and Councillors W. Appleton, A. Black, T. Brindle, J. Burns, L. McKenzie, and H.. A.Huggins) .was as follows:—

1. That the plan and report sub■mitted by the City Engineer for deveiopment work at Rongotai Aerodrome in order that it may be classified as a B class airport be approved find that statutory authority be applied for to enable the council to carry out reclamation work at Lyall Bay. .

2. That the Unemployment Board be requested to continue the payment of the present subsidy of £3 per week for each man employed on airport development until statutory authority has been obtained to proceed with the reclamation work.

3. That the Government be re

quested to grant additional financial Assistance towards the "cost of carrying out the proposed development work at Rongotai Aerodrome, estimated to cost £128,200.

The' Mayor (Mr. T. G. A. Hislop) moved the adoption of the report. The first clause, if carried, he said, would approve the general lay-out in the plan submitted by the City Engineer, involving a certain amount of reclamation. . "If we are to have an F.rea sufficient for a B class aerodrome for all purposes, we must come to the conclusion whether we will reclaim or not,' he remarked. "What is asked in the report is general approval of that plan, and that means getting authority from Parliament, which we cannot now get for several months, to reclaim. If we pass this plan we will approve the whole plan.

"In regard to clause 2 .nothing' of a I major nature can be done for a couple of months, so we ask the Unemployment Board to continue the present subsidy of £3 a week to cans out the existing work for that time: APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT. ' iriTbe third Clause suggests that we go to; the Government to ask for additional financial assistance. The total cost with reclamation, making a firstclass aerodrome suitable for all types of aircraft in New Zealand, is £128,200. On the subsidy we are already promised we had to get an amount which would. leave the council to carry £80,100 of the .total, but we think, in view of the national importance oi this work, we are entitled to get further assistance than the amount promised by the Unemployment Board. It is therefore suggested that we-should go to the Government for further assistance. Until we know what the Government will give us, in addition to the amount already promised, we cannot go,'on with it. The work would be spread over about three years. We cannot go further until we know that the council's burden will be somewhat less." . I

Councillor Huggins seconded the Mayor's motion, saying that the council could not go in for any half-way or half-satisfactory scheme. Obviously it would be of no purpose to consider a reclamation without a retaining .wail.

Wellington must become a main airport, said Councillor R. McKeen, M.P., but the expenditure of £20,000 per year for. lour years was a big thing, upon which ratepayers should have the right to express an opinion. The publication of the plan would bring an expression of opinion from which the council could gather whether the public would stand for the expenditure and for the alteration to the beach line which the carrying out of the scheme.would involve..

ENGINEER'S COMMENTS

iV Mr. Luke said that on taking over. ;th'e duties'of City Engineer he was ] requested by the Town Clerk to report upon the various stages in which it: had been proposed the development of Eongo'tai should be^ carried out. : Stage ,3, he said, included the depositling of about 60,000 yards of spoil (from (theMoa Point'hill excavation) on the I -waterfront, but no steps had beeu j taken to obtain statutory authority to j deposit, the spoil. Stage 4 definitely in- ! eluded reclamation. He had expressed i the'opinion that it was useless to proceed.with any reclamation until adei quate protection work had been provided* which work would have to be iof a substantial nature. Any seawall j would |aye to be placed in its perjmanent position, otherwise it would be [buried' under later work and its value I lost. . Mr. Luke /said that he had discussed the proposed scheme with officers of the Public Works Department and with the Director of Air Services, WingCommander T., M. Wilkes, wjio had given an assurance that with the development of the reclamation scheme Wellington would have an airport for the accommodation of commercial aircraft of the present and the future.

Before further work was done at Rongotai, '■■ continued Mr. Luke, the

whole position and the effect of work- done and work proposed should be fully reviewed, for it would be futile to proceed without knowing where the work was going to lead. Without that full ' consideration there was a possibility of the council being led into heavy commitments, without an assurance, even after heavy expenditure, that Wellington would be given an airport to meet all requirements.

Mr. Luke pointed out that if the council went ahead with stage 3 it would be practically forced to carry out the Reclamation.

There was no question that Welling- , ton must have an airport, and it appeared that Rongotai was the only available area, said Councillor W. J. Gaudin, but the point that worried him was whether the seawall would stand up to heavy southerly weather. WILL COMPANIES CALL? Replying to Councillor P. Fraser, M.P., who asked whether it was definite that airways companies would operate to and from Rongotai even if the scheme were carried out in full, Mr. Luke said that Cook Strait Airways had already arranged to work at Rongotai and Great Pacific Airways ;had stated their intention of calling at Wellington, while Squadron-Leader McGregor, n[ Union Airways, had stated that his company would be will-

ing to call at" Rongotai if the reclamation were carried out..

Councillor Fraser said that the point was of first importance. All remembered what had.happened at meetings of the Transport Co-ordination Board, which had said that Rongotai was not suitable for regular 'commercial services on account .of weather conditions. On that point the position had to be made quite clear;

GEAR AND SCABEY ISLANDS

Councillor P. M. Butler said that he appreciated the work done by the Airpor,t Committee, but he suggested that before any further expenditure was added to the already heavy amount expended further and fuller consideration should be given. Already £60,000 had been spent at Rongotai, of which £28.000 had been found by the city, itself enough to purchase a full aerodrome somewhere else, and the present report meant that the city would be called upon to pay another £80.000. The council, before approving anything more, should give attention to the Gear Island or Scabey Island proposals.

I Councillor L. McKenzie said that he was a member; of the Airport Committee and that he appreciated quite fully the importance of an adequate airport, but could the city, with other heavy outgoings in front of it, aiTord such expenditure as was suggested? HEAVY EXPENDITURE AHEAD. "The most important expenditure that this city has to make is not for the airport, but for the rehabilitation of the city's drainage system," said Councillor McKenzie, "and that work has to be done right now. It is a matter of how much the city can afford to spend on those two works. lam fully in-accord with what has been said about Wellington's place in aviation in the Dominion, but we have to tackle this drainage work. It is absolutely imperative for the health of the city, and now we are asked to provide another £80,000 for Rongotai, unless the Government can assist jus further. Inevitably this must mean extra rates upon' the city. I suggest that this is i an awful lot io spend upon an airport, I and it is .just a question whether we | could not do something better somewhere else: The development.of Gear or Scabey Island would cost less than Rongotai." I

Moreover, said Councillor McKenzie, he was. not. at all satisfied about the stability of a seawall at Lyall Bay. The engineers believed that a seawall would stand there, and they were, in stating that, staking their future reputations, but breakwaters at Timaru, New Plymouth, and Napier had been relied upon and had failed to stand the battering of heavy seas. He repeated that he was not satisfied that further heavy expenditure at Rongotai was the right course; full inquiry should be made of other possible fields.

Finally the report was, on the suggestion of the Mayor, "tentatively" approved, Mr. Hislop remarking that that would enable objections and suggestions from prospective users of the airport to be "placed before' the council.

The Town Clerk (Mr. E. P. Norman) stated this morning that the expenditure on Rongotai Aerodrome, including the Government subsidy on relief work, interest, and sinking fund payments on loans, as well as operating and maintenance costs, to March 31, 1D35, was P 56.900. Costs for the . current year, not included in the estimate of £128,000 submited to the council yesterday, will amount to approximately £3800.