CLAIMS MADE FOR BULLER AIRPORT AGAINST HOKITIKA

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 July 1947, Page 6

CLAIMS MADE FOR BULLER AIRPORT AGAINST HOKITIKA

“Buller seems to be the last district in New Zealand to be pulled into line with services granted to other parts of this Dominion,” said Mr L. Mockett, chairman of the Buller Progress League at its monthly meeting on Thursday. He claimed, during a discussion on Sir Leonard Isitt’s visit to Westport, and the need for extending Carter’s Beach airfield, that after every other district had been looked after some attention was given to Buller. He gave instances of essential services being delayed, such as the railway buses, which were well known everywhere before they came to Westport. Mr Mockett added that Mr Maurice Clarke (manager of the corporation) had told him that the Westport field could accommodate any class of plane likely to visit New Zealand. Mr ,R. R. Dawber said that the ’drome at Carter’s Beach was better now than ever Hokitika and Greymouth was likely to get and there rvas definitely room for extensions. “We don’t want Hokitika to be ahead of us when international standards are recognised,” said the chairman.

Mr C. Tait said that there was a feeling that Hokitika was cut and dried as the main airport on the West Coast.

The chairman said that almost as many passengers to and from Wellington and Nelson at the presenttime eame from the Buller as from the other two Coast centres put together and it was likely that more Buller people would patronise a trans-al-pine service than in Hokitika and Greymouth because of the longer distance which they had to travel by train.

It was decided to ask the Government for details of the new airfield at Hokitika and how it will compare with that at Westport and also what it is intended to do in the way of extensions to the Carter’s Beach field.