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Salient. Victoria University Students Newspaper. Volume 37, No 26. October 2, 1974

Places We Plan to Visit

Places We Plan to Visit

The Bluff Aluminium Smelter and Lake Manapouri

The Bluff smelter is totally foreign controlled by Japanese, British and American interests. At present the smelter uses 10% of N.Z.'s power and pays one quarter the price charged to the N.Z. householder. In 1973 the N.Z. consumer subsidised the smelter by $11 million. Lake Manapouri, which was saved from destruction by a massive nationwide public campaign, is still in danger of being raised. It is maintained within its natural limits solely by public vigilance and a Labour Party election promise.

The West Coast — Southland Beech Scheme

Under the N.Z. Forest Service proposals 468,880 acres of forest on the West Coast and Southland is to be offered on worldwide tender to the paper pulp industry. It appears certain that a Japanese controlled consortium will exploit these forests. Public and professional organisations throughout the country oppose the beech scheme, which the Nature Conservation Council refers to as the "pine scheme" because of the 50% of forest that will be replanted in exotic pines.

Mt Davy/Pike River Coal

The Greymouth (includes Mt Davy) and Pike River coal fields contain the finest grades of coal in N.Z., and the only grades entirely suitable for gas making and metallurgical coke. Both fields are being prospected by foreign interests. At Mt Davy, Ataka & Co. Ltd of Japan have discovered 22 million tons of high grade coal. At Pike River the Magellan Petroleum Corporation of America has 70 million tons. Contracts and conditions for exploitation of the coal have not yet been fixed for either field.

Red Hills Asbestos

A consortium of Kennecott Copper Corporation of USA, Cassiar Asbestos-Corporation of Canada, and Lime and Marble N.Z., are in the advanced stages of prospecting a large asbestos deposit in the Red Hills area of N. W. Otago. Situated in the middle of one of N.Z.'s last great wilderness areas, and bordering Mt Aspiring National Park, the Red Hills deserve better than to be processed into fibrolite and asbestos cement pipes. If mining does go ahead, the consortium will regroup as N.Z. Asbestos Ltd, with Kennecott and Cassiar holding one million shares each, and Lime and Marble having the right to purchase 324,581 shares.

Mt George Iron Ore

A massive deposit of iron ore, which is also rich in titanium, vanadium, tungsten, copper and nickel, is at present being prospected in the Mt George area of Fiordland National Park, close to Deep Cove. The companies involved in the operation are Consolidated Silver Mining Company of N.Z., and until May of 1974, Carpentaria Explorations, a subsidiary of the giant American Smelting and Refining Corporation. The reason behind Carpentaria's pullout was apparently the N.Z. governments insistence to reserve the right to increase N.Z. ownership beyond the 50% level negotiated by Con. Silver.

United States Military Bases

There are two U.S. military bases in N.Z. The largest is at Harewood Airport, Christchurch, where under the cover of the U.S. Antarctic Research Programme, the military maintains a general purpose Naval depot, an Air Force Military Airlift Command Base, and a Naval Communications Unit (part of which is situated at RNZAF base, Weedons). At Mt John the U.S. Air Force's Satellite Tracking Station pinpoints the position of enemy satellites so that in the event of nuclear war the U.S. Aerospace Defence Command can shoot them down. The operations base for Mt John is at Washdyke, near Timaru.

Other Places of Special Interest

At several other places along the route of the bus tour we will be stopping to look at enterprises which, although not foreign controlled, have been the subject of local and national controversy

The Clutha River Power Scheme: In order to meet projected growth in electricity demands, the government is planning to develop the Clutha River for power. An earlier proposal to build a dam below Cromwell that would lift the level of the Clutha to that of Lake Wanaka, 30 miles upstream, has been replaced by a less environmentally destructive scheme involving six smaller dams which will raise the river in steps, and produce 1400 MW, twice the capacity of Manapouri.

The Lower Waitaki River is also under threat from the power developers. A recent report states that five sixths of the flow of the lower Waitaki is like to be run into a man-made canal for further power generation. Also worth a visit is the Franz Josef Tourist Hotel Corporation Hotel where the The treats a national park as a foreign exchange earner instead of as a nature reserve, the campaign to halt the Greenstone and Hollyford roads is very worthy of our support, and the Venison and Crayfish Export Industries which effectively deny both these foods to the N.Z. consumer, should be looked into.

The Campaign Against Foreign Control is planning to publish a booklet before the end of this year, on examples of foreign control in N.Z., cases on excessive control by homegrown monopolists, and enterprises which are socially or ecologically disastrous. Any contributions from people with specialised knowledge in any of these fields would be most welcome.