AERODROME LOAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20050, 23 September 1939, Page 14

AERODROME LOAN

WAIROA £IO,OOO PROJECT PROCEDURE CHALLENGED ALLEGATION OF ABUSE DEBATE IN HOUSE (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. • The clause in the Local Legislation. Bill which authorises the Wairoa Harbour Board to raise a £IO,OOO loan for the purchase of land for an aerodrome came under fire in the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr. A. E. Jull (Nat., Waipawa) suggesting that it was an abuse of the privilege given to local authorities to include validating provisions in this “washingup" measure.

This clause, lie declared, .should have been brougnt before Parliament as a local bill. Then it would have been properly advertised in the district. " It was extraordinary to give the power to raise a large loan without the authority of the ratepayers, to buy land for an aerodrome when, under present conditions, there was a serious risk that further money for construction work might not become available.

“Local authorities all over the country,” concluded Mr. Jull, “seem to have gone ‘dotty’ about aerodromes.” Mr. Clyde Carr (Lab., Timaru)) Some of us are air-minded. Mr. Jull: Hoi-air minded. Defended by Mr. Coleman

The clause was defended by Mr. D. W. Coleman (Gisborne), who explained that the Wairoa Harbour Board was asked to take up the proposal at the unanimous request of all the local bodies of the district, as the board covered a wider area than any other local authority. It was proposed to expend £IB,OOO on purchasing 200 acres on which to construct an aerodrome and, as everyone had agreed, there was no need to take a poll of ratepayers. If such a poll had to be taken, hardly a quarter of the ratepayers could get to the polling places in so scattered a district. Wairoa was very isolated last year, and was completely cut oIT from the outside world by floods and slips. After this experience the aerodrome proposal was taken up in earnest.

Mr. Jull,: Since then the railway has been opened.

Mr. Coleman: The slips which cut off the roads also covered the railway. Lie urged that the matter was so important that the House should pass the clause.

Mr. W. J. Poison (Nat., Stratford) said he sympathised with the people of Wairoa, who wanted to be in the hunt for aerodromes, though lie also considered Mr. Jull’s protest was justified. Having been once stuck in Wairoa, Mr. Poison added, he would have been very glad if there had been an aerodrome so he could have got away by air.

Authority in Proper Way

The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, remarked that Mr. Jull was fully justified in raising the question principle involved. Even if the people of the district were so unanimous that a poll was not needed, this did not dispose of the necessity for getting authority in the proper way through a local bill. Wairoa, in his opinion, was nothing like so isolated as many other places, because it had the railway. The Local Legislation Bill was not intended to more than validate the actions of local bodies, but Wairoa had taken a short and very nice route to avoid a local bill.

The acting-Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser, quoted a number of precedent's for including in the bill authority such as was contained in the clause. Wairoa’s case was a borderline one, in his opinion, but it was well understood that urgent matters could be dealt with in that way. There was no doubt that the establishment of an aerodrome at Wairoa was an urgent matter, and the Leader of the Opposition would know that from his own experience, where he had said that he wished there had been a land-ing-ground at Wairoa. That was surely justification for the clause. Mr. Hamilton: Oh, no! “The next time he flies over Wairoa,” replied Mr. Fraser, “he will find a landing-ground. The Public Works Department are doing the work and the Air Department states it is essential there should be an aerodrome at Wairoa.”

The bill was eventually passed, including the Wairoa empowering clause.