More Fuss About
p. 33 · Read in the full issue
Cook's Jetstrip
With the project at least a year late in starting, controversy over construction of the Cook
Islands proposed jetstrip for
Rarotonga raged in the Cooks and New Zealand in January, following allegations that a con tract for its construction had been let by New Zealand.
At the same time, with not a sod of the jetstrip yet turned, an Auck land firm released a survey of the potential of tourism in the Cooks, predicting 30,000 to 40,000 visitors a year for the group in 1975.
The controversy over construction began at government level. Cook Islands Minister for Tourism, Mr. T.
A. Henry, said that the NZ Govern ment had accepted a tender for the airstrip, worth SNZ4,S million, from a Hong Kong-based firm. Gammon (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Gammon, Mr. Henry said, intended to employ 81 mostly single, Asian men and 147 Cook Islanders to build the strip.
Mr. Henry, son of the Cooks’
Premier, alleged that the NZ Minis ter of Works, Mr, Allen, had said the Gammon tender was Si million cheaper than others and would save NZ $1.2 million by the use of NZ materials.
Upset social life
Mr. Henry said his territory ob jected to the contract because of the big number of single Asian men who would settle in Rarotonga during construction. This would upset social life. They had been given the under taking by NZ that no more than 20 skilled personnel would come from overseas and that 220 Cook Islanders would be employed.
The NZ Press carried many reports of the Cook Islanders’ protests, along with denials from the NZ Govern ment that any contract had actually been let. It all seemed a repeat of last year’s disputes between the two governments over air rights into the Cooks and. the year before that, of unsuccessful attempts bv the Cook Islanders to have their airport at Aitutaki, and not Rarotonga.
The NZ Government got its way on both previous occasions.
Since NZ announced it would build a SNZ6 million, and not a $4.5 million, airport, at Rarotonga, in early 1968 (PIM, May, 1968, p. 37) delays have been common.
NZ’s Minister for Civil Aviation at that time, said that the jetstrip, including all facilities, would be ready by 1971. This is now impos sible.