MURUPARA WILL GO ON, SAYS MINISTER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 16, 6 November 1950, Page 4

MURUPARA WILL GO ON, SAYS MINISTER

The Government’s final scheme for the development of the Murupara plup and paper industry would be ready for presentation in the near future, said the Minister of Forests, Mr Corbett, during the discussion on the Forestry Dmartment’s estimates in the House of Representatives on Friday. He added that he was speaking with some restraint ‘because further meetings of a special sub-committee of Cabinet which was considering the proposals would have to be held before the Government could go ahead. In opening the discussion, the Hon. C. F. Skinner (Opposition— Buller) said it was very gratifying to find that, in spite of difficulties, such a good sheet had been turned out in the experiments with New Zealand timber at the Lufkin newsprint mills, in Texas. The House had not heard a word about whether the Government was going ahead with the Murupara project. In view of the present price of newsprint it would be “a money spinner.”

Mr H. Johnstone (Government — Raglan) asked whether anything had been done to secure the tenure of the site for the mill. He hoped that the Minister would ensure that there was no repetition of what had happened at Mangakino, where the site of the township would have to be handed back to the Maoris after 21 years.

“Clear Indication” Mr Corbett said the vote of £200,000 on the estimates was a clear indication that the Government was not losing sight of the project, although it was not at the stage when he could say what would be done. A meeting of the special sub-com-mittee was being held to discuss the next step. Recalling that he had inherited an agreement from his predecessor for the British firm of Bowater’s to carry out investigations, Mr Corbett said that it had been eight or nine months before he received information that this organisation, vfhile not questioning the scheme in an way, did not want to continue negotiations on the basis of subscribing about 50 per cent of the capital. He had taken it that the firm might be prepared to go ahead with less.

Before entering office the Government had stated that it would not embark on what it believed the previous Administration had in view—a complete State scheme. The , scheme must have some State assistance because of its very size, but a large measure of capital and ' the management should be provided by private enterprise. It was on those lines that the Government was steering a course at present. Tests Not Complete Mr Corbett said that re-costing of the scheme had been completed ex - cept for the Rust report. This was a pre-requisite to the next step. The Lefkin tests were still not complete, but the Government had a fairly good picture. The last tests had not been as satisfactory as they could have been owing to the delay in the arrival of the timber. Because the paper was “bony grey” in colour it was not quite suitable. A site had not been acquired for the mill. The preyious Administration had considered a large area of land at Murupara to be the best site, but some experts disagreed. To him, Murupara seemed the best place. There would be no question of insecurity of tenure and no injustice would be done to the owners of the land. The site would have to be decided in the very near future.