CANCELLED PROJECT

Evening Star, Issue 25770, 17 April 1946, Page 7

CANCELLED PROJECT

TRUE REASONS NOT GIVEN N.S.W. PREMIER CHALLENGES VISCOUNT NUFFIELD (Rec. 12.40 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 17. Charges that Viscount Nuffield's published reason for not beginning the Victoria Park project was a spurious one, were made by the Premier, Mr W. J. McKell, in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly last night. He was replying to a censure motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Treatt, who alleged that Mr McKell had been completely negligent. The motion was defeated by 42 to 16. Mr Treatt moved that the Government no longer had the confidence otf the House, because of its failure to enable the establishment of a £1,000,000 British car industry at Victoria Park and its undisguised preference for the setting up of a State-sponsored turf club. Mr McKell counter-charged that Mr Treatt and the Press were deliberately seeking to distort the facts. Viscount Nuffield had not stated that he intended to transfer the industry to South Australia, but had merely _ extended a contract already entered into with a South Australian firm. The Nuffield organisation had not carried out any negotiations for the establishment of its own industry there. The Victoria Park project could not supply bodies for chassis already on the way, as Viscount Nuffield himself had, said that there would be no machinery available for 18 months or more. The project at Victoria Pafk was a longrange one. " The point is that Viscount Nuffield has not given a reason for not beginning the project," said Mr McKell. " The reason is not stated, because it is a spurious one, and is not the real reason behind his action. Victoria Park is available. There is no likelihood of any racing resumption in spite of its being subject to lease. He may go on with it at any moment. There are no obstacles, but every facility has been given him. I do not take back one word I said about Viscount Nuffield's representative. He did not handle the matter in the competent way you would expect of a high business executive." Mr McKell also charged Viscount Nuffield with discourtesy in failing to answer a personal message. [A Sydney message, dated March 28, said: Finding that he could not obtain assurances ihat the Victoria Park racecourse in Sydney, which he recently bought for £I,BOO an acre, would not be resumed for racing purposes, Lord Nuffield has signed a contract with a South Australian company to do all the bodybuilding work which 'he had intended to do at Sydney. In a long statement, Lord Nuffield criticised the New South Wales Premier, Mr W. J. McKell, and outlined the efforts his representative had made to obtain a statement of Government intentions. The position is that the Australian Jockey Club holds a two-year lease of the course, and that the Sydney Turf Club has " certain powers of resumption." Lord Nuffield paid £205,000 for the land, and he now learns that the Turf Club is proposing to reopen the course for racing.]