WATER CONSERVATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1928, Page 9

WATER CONSERVATION.

RESERVE AT MAUNGATAWHIRI.

Information was received by the Onehunga Borough Council last night from the Minister of Lands with regard to a section of land at Maungatawhiri, in the parish of Otau, which is to be set aside aB a reserve for water conservation and vested in a trust. The Onehunga Borough Council and the One Tree Hill Road Board asked that the fee simple of the land should be vested in these two local bodies, and in order to permit this to be done it was necessary to extinguish the leasehold title to the section. By this proceeding the council was saved £410 5/, representing the original capital value of the land, which the council would have had to pay had the freehold of the area been acquired in the usual way. Afterwards the Onehunga town clerk conveyed the thanks of the council to the Department for the action taken. The lease was forfeited at request on June 5, 1918, and by warrant published in the "Gazette" of May 22, 1019, the land wag permanently reserved for water conservation. This was followed by an Order-in-Council published in the "Gazette" on January 8, 1920, vesting the revenue in the Mayor, Council and burgesses of the borough of Onehunga, and the corporation of the One Tree Hill Road Board district (which corporation took over the interests of the Manukau Water Supply Board) in trust for water conservation purposes. The local bodies mentioned have, therefore, a complete and permanent title to the land for the purpose stated. The Mayor (Mr. W. C. Coldicutt) said that there was a suspicion that another council was trying to get hold of this property of 600 acres. The Minister's letter showed that the Onehunga and One Tree Hill local authorities had an inalienable right to the property.