Job creation?

He said that to meet the objectives of the Conservation movements would mean breaking more contracts to sawmillers. That's rather unusual, in the well researched NFAC/F&B submissions it was evident that in the case of the King Country forests there are no legal obligations to log in force! Mr Young also spoke about unemployment, yet the number of people who would be engaged in logging, according to NFAC/F&B would number less than twenty for ten years maximum.

At the same time logging of the forest would be another death knell to King Country tourism. Throughout the summer months guided tours were taken through Pureora forest. Its obvious that tourism as a job-creator would in the long term be more economically and socially profitable. Where are the masses of unemployed millers in the King Country? When the extremely inefficient KC Barryville mill was closed three years ago the workers left the district. These "financial loss or gain" arguments are ridiculous, how can Mr Young give a dollar and cents value to the last remnants of virgin lowland forest?

It is an interesting 'co-incidence' that the KC plans cover an area in the electorate of Mr Bolger. He is facing a strong and determined challenge by Social Credit in this election year. Incidentally, Social Credit has a more conservationist policy than does the National party. Some would say the proposed 'remnant logging' is really an election lolly.