ESTUARY CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22801, 29 August 1939, Page 11

ESTUARY CONTROL

CONSERVANCY BOARD FAVOURED SUMNER COUNCIL WANTS REPRESENTATION The Sumner Borough Council favours the establishment of a conservancy board to control the estuary, but only if the local bodies affected are adequately represented. This was made clear in a long discussion after a letter, received from the Christchurch City Council and read last evening at a meeting of the Borough Council, in connexion with the proposal to establish a conservancy board. The Mayor (Mr J. E. Tait) said that the council was being asked to decide a serious matter. Careful consideration should be given to whether the council was prepared to hand over control to the Christchurch City Councll and abide by its actions either in the raising of money or the rating of the necessary area. Did the council wish to have a representative on the board. ■ ,

Cr. I. J. Wilson: I understand that local bodies will be represented. The Christchurch City Council would have special sittings as a boardt on which there would be representatives from local bodies. The Town Clerk (Mr J. F. Menzies): In what proportion? Cr. Wilson: Yes, that should be made clear.

The Mayor: We would have to see the draft of the bill. Cr. Wilson: The question of representation will have to be watched. Th© recent- conference decided that the Christchurch City Council was the only body with the necessary engineering facilities. Cr. F. T. Eldridge said that nothing should be done until the engineers had made a. report. He had his doubts about representation from local bodies because this upset the previous bill. The Mayor said that the position should be carefully watched. The proposed board would do work on the estuary, and it was quite possible that the Sumner Borough Council would have to act as a conservancy board to conserve the borough. The Sumner Borough Council would have most to contend with in the estuary. “The proposal is a very fine thing and we should not stand in the way of any improvement,” said Cr. J. L. Gant. The estuary'was Just a mud hole at present, and there were records available to show what the estuary was composed of. He did not see that any harm could come to Sumner, and a board would endeavour to make it better both to look at and from a utility point of view. At present it was a sink for refuse. He had seen sewage tipped into it which had not gone through the sewage farm. Sewage going into it was supposed to be filtered. Cr. X. J. Wilson moved “that the council approve of the Christchurch City Council acting as a conservancy board, provided that other local bodies affected be adequately _ represented.” “That is the very thing I opposed at the conference,” said Cr. referring to the question of local body representation. “It will not be a question of hundreds of pounds but of thousands,” he said. “The estuary is a sump hole at present, and there will be an annual charge for removing spoil." The motion was carried.