SOUTH ISLAND DOING WELL SAYS MINISTER

Grey River Argus, 15 April 1948, Page 5

SOUTH ISLAND DOING WELL SAYS MINISTER

No Neglect by Tourist: Department

P.A. INVERCARGILL, April 14. A firm declaration that there was nothing to the Idea that the southern part of New Zealand was being neglected by the Tourist Department was made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry, to a deputation from the Bluff Harbour Board to-dav.

“Since I have been Minister in Charge of the Tourist Department,” said Mr Parry, “I know of no single thing planned to prevent people coming to this part of the country. I have always asked the department to push forward strongly the idea of getting people to the south, and it is discouraging to hear statements that the south is neglected. There are so many things that have to be done. I want to get accommodation reconstructed and built, but if I put a man on to the building of a hostel at Queenstown, there would be a roar from one end of New Zealand to the other. s '

“All of the public men know these facts, but they do not make use of them —for obvious reasons. All the time, I am being criticised by people who say that I am not doing enough. How can I?”

Mr Parry said that the figures from the Tourist Department showed that the south was doing very well inded. He would show those figures next session.

Government Grants for Community Centres • INVERCARGILL, April 14. The hope that the community Centre idea would be incorporated into the national life of New Zealand as a part of national policy, was oxpresssed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry, in an address to representatives of various interested organisations to-day. Mr Parry said that the Government’s idea was that Community Centres should be established as war memor ials. On such projects, the Government was prepared to grant a £ for £ subsidy. The Minister was informed that in Invercargill a proposal to have a Community 1 Centre as a war memorial had been defeated, but that plans were now well in hand for the establishment of a Community Centre. He said that the Government would have to consider whether it would grant a subsidy for Community Centres that were not erected as war memorials.