Threat To Manapouri And Te. Anau

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29324, 1 October 1960, Page 3

Threat To Manapouri And Te. Anau

• Sir,—The Manapouri-Te Anau Development Bill has been put through the committee stage, after most unintelligent discussion by its supporters, with the aid of an incorrect statement: "It would be 10 or 15 years before the second stage of development was reached. There is no immediate necessity for us to determine whether the levels will be raised or not” On the contrary, the first things designers need to know are the future working levels of the lakes. These decide whether a low spillway weir or a dam designed for raising to higher levels will be needed in the Waiau; also whether turbines should be designed for nearly 600 feet head, or nearly 700 feet and (in the latter case) operated below their best efficiency until lake levels are raised. Like offering a horse water, you can put facts before a politician, but too often you can’t make him think. —Yours, etc..

■ ARTHUR LUSH. September 30, 1960.

Sir, —“Common Sense” has missed the point The issue for scenic preservation is hot the lakes instead of an aluminium industry, but the lakes as well as an aluminium industry. That this is perfectly feasible is shown by the growing body of expert support for retaining present lake levels. One stumbling-block is the attitude of “It’ll be all the same in a hundred years!” Faced with the irreversible damage consequent on raising Manapouri by 80 feet, the larger and more urbanised population of a hundred years hence would be cursing us for our stupidity in sacrificing, at bargain rates, even a fragment of such a valuable wilderness area. Country planning, like town planning, has to come, and it had better come before we are saddled with too many blunders.—Yours, etc., ELSIE LOCKE. September 29, 1960.

Sir,—The Tories don’t like the Labour Government getting all the credit for the help they are giving the industry. The Tories are the worst offenders, the way they disfigured the hills over Wellington with “Vote National." If they had been left in power they would have all New Zealand under water. —Yours, etc., FAR BACK DAN. September 29, 1960.