ARTHUR'S PASS BOARD

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21320, 13 November 1934, Page 5

ARTHUR'S PASS BOARD

NO REPRESENTATION FOR RIVER TRUST

DISSATISFACTION EXPRESSED The commissioners of the Waimakariri River Trust recently asked the Department of Lands and Survey to consider the appointment of a representative of the trust on the Arthur's Pass National Park Board. At the meeting of the trust yesterday a letter was received from the under-secretary to the department advising that it Had been decided not to fill the existing vacancies on the board at present. The trust resolved that, in view of its vital interest in the conservation of the headwaters of the river, its application for representation on the board should be renewed.

"I wonder what the big idea is, remarked Mr F. W. Freeman, when the letter from the department was read. "Expense, I suppose," said a member. Mr Freeman said that only four meetings were held each year, and members' travelling expenses were negligible. He considered the trust should not let the matter rest, as it was highly desirable that the trust should have representation on the board. There had been additions to the personnel of the board in recent years, but later vacancies caused by the death of Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson and the departure from Canterbury of Professor Arnold Wall had. not been filled. It was quite anomalous that the trust should have no representation on the board that controlled the headwaters of the river, when many other less important interests were represented. The chairman (Mr J. H. Blackwell): We have shown our interest in the national park in a practical way. We have spent money on deer shooting in the headwaters of the Waimakariri.