Waiouru candidate for Ruapehu mayor

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 301, 25 August 1989, Page 4

Waiouru candidate for Ruapehu mayor

Retired Waiouru businessman Gordon Mottram has announced he is to stand for mayor of the new Ruapehu District Council.

Mr Mottram says he has the experience he is sure electors will recog-

nise. That experience covers a wide range of enterprises over a long

period of time. He has operated an advertising business and has been involved in a number of business activities including publishing, film distribution, entertainment, petrol stations, property ownership and development and financial consultancy. He retired in 1988 and with his wife Jennifer and son Karl moved to Waiouru "for the quality of life, proximity to other centres and the purity of the air". He has said he has an affinity with the army having served and risen to the rank of technical sergeant in the New Zealand Army. This time included serving two years in Japan in

the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces at the end of World War Two. Gordon Mottram was born in Taumarunui, educated at Hukapapa (Oio), Waimiha and Waitaanga schools. He went dairy farming in Te Awamutu, then moved back to the King Country to Olsen's Waitaanga sawmill for four years. He moved to Auckland to work as a welder and photographer before starting his advertising business. In a prepared statement Mr Mottram said for the people elected to represent the Waimarino and Waiouru areas the task is to see that they are not dominated by a strong sector of council elected from the more populous Taumarunui urban interests. Mr Mottram says because he is now retired

from active business he has plenty of time available to help establish a new and better local government system, with "emphasis on service and serving the interests of the communities of the new Ruapehu District". He said one of the greatest tasks will be to "weld this district into a composite district where everyone would be neighbours rather than individual units. "I feel that it is imperative that readers, over the coming weeks, be fully informed so that they can leam all facets of what is to come," he said in his statement. "From 31 June 1990, no longer will there be any cash assistance given, as in the past, by central government, to deal with the problems of roading, pollution, regional transport, haz-

ardous substances, water supply, weeds and pests. The rural and urban ratepayer will foot the bills." Mr Mottram said, if elected, he will give

most of his mayoral salary to a mayoral fund to be used in emergencies, for example. He said he would leave it to other people to handle the fund.