Catchment Board Changes Policy

Press, Volume C, Issue 29662, 4 November 1961, Page 15

Catchment Board Changes Policy

A change in policy was tnadq by the North Canterbury Catchment Hoard yesterday when it adopted a revised form of a report of a sub-committee on soil conservation.

The original report was presented at the September meeting and published on September 2. The report was considered by the board's finance and executive committee and Mr D. R. Wilkie and Mr H. E. Connor, two of the members of the sub-committee. Dr. G. Jobberns, chairman of the finance committee, told the meeting yesterday that some minor alterations had been made to the report on soil conservation and he now asked the board to adopt it in its revised form. He moved that this be done.

Mr J. M. Pickering, seconding the revised report, said it had been dealt with by the finance and executive committee because it involved changes in the board’s policy. It was an attempt and he hoped a successful one to streamline the conservation work of the board and remove the frustrations experienced by the conservation staff.

The report, apart from a recommendation on a separate reserves committee, was adopted. Dr. Jobberns then moved the adoptipn of the following recommendation: “That a separate reserves committee be set up to report direct to the board and that the supervisor of reseives be responsible to this committee; the finance and executive committee recommends that this be done forthwith and that the members of the new committee be Mr G. J. Watt, Mr F. L. Wright, and Mr J. M. Pickering.”

This motion was seconded by Mr T. W. Preston and carried.

Staff Shortage The board’s chief engineer (IMr H. M. Reid) had reported on the inability to cope with work already approved because of lack of staff, particularly on the technical side, said Dr. Jobberns. The question was: how could the board recruit staff beginning, say, as assistant cihainmen and going on to work survey Instruments? Mr Reid had advertised but had no applications.

That sort of employee was so difficult to get Mr Reid said that unless be could get staff to do the outside plotting he could not handle any more projects. The chairman (Mr R. M. D. Johnson) said shortage of staff was a general trend in the country. The board should try and pick up likely sorts at the end of the school year ■ as Mr Reid had suggested. Mr E. C. Smart District Commissioner of Works, said his department had found there were plenty of young fellows offering as field assistants for survey work. But they had to be trained. Those working for his department had to take a course of training. "The trouble is we train them and then lose them,” he said. Mr C. S. Ayres said Rangiora and Papanui High Schools had been mentioned as likely, places to recruit staff. A member of the board’s staff should visit these schools well before the end of the year and put the matter before the teacher dealing with vocational guidance.

The board agreed that this should be done and Mr Reid said he had already got in touch with Papanui High School. Selwyn River It was reported to the board that, after a meeting of representatives of the board with ratepayers at Doyleston on October 30 to discuss flood protection on the Selwyn river, the following motion was carried:— “That the catchment board be asked to prepare proposals for a 20,000-cusec scheme, estimated to cost £92,500, and submit such proposals to the Soil Conserva-

tion and Rivers Control Council with a request for a £3 for £1 subsidy.” Mr Johnson said he thought the board should carry out the request of the ratepayers. If this work was done it could be the start of unified control over the whole area. Mr A. T. Bell moved that the board do all that was necessary to implement the request by the ratepayers. This was seconded by Mr Reston and carried. Problem Stream

The board decided that Mr Reid and its chief soil conservation officer (Mr R. D. Dick) interview the occupiers of land adjacent to a tributary of Bullock creek at Okuku and discuss the possibility of a co-ordinated scheme of flood control for the area. Mr Wilkie said the problem was on the hills and extended to the plain country It was a perfect example of what the board should be doing in a co-ordinated scheme. “I think we should have basically an overall scheme and then fit each farm into it with integrated farm plans,” he said. Tall Fescue

Mr Wright drew the board’s attention to a report in “The Press" of October 21 in which the growing of tall fescue at Ashley Dene was advocated. If it was grown on the heavier land at Lincoln and got into the drains it could be as bad as nassella tussock. Mr Connor said ■ the tall fescue grown at Ashley Dene was a strain from Wales. It was the same species as that known to Mr Wright, but a vastly different variety and was not likely to get on the sides of roads or drains.