Advice Sought On River Warnings

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30739, 1 May 1965, Page 1

Advice Sought On River Warnings

A legal opinion as to the liability which might be incurred by catchment boards if they compelled contractors to erect warning notices where hazards were created in rivers by the removal of gravel is to be sought by the North Canterbury Catchment Board from the New Zealand Catchment Authorities Association.

Recently the DirectorGeneral of Lands (Mr R. J. MacLachlan), after representations by the Council of North Island Acclimatisation Societies, instructed commissioners of Crown lands to include in all licences for the removal of gravel from rivers a condition that the licensee must erect a warning sign wherever, as a result of the extraction of gravel, the river was likely to be dangerous. He asked catchment authorities to follow the same procedure with regard to rivers under their control.

After receiving objections from some catchment authorities on the grounds of accident liability, the DirectorGeneral affirmed his position and again asked for the authorities’ support. “The erection of notices where appropriate would undoubtedly assist to save life and, if there is any liability, would, I feel, mitigate that liability,” he said in a letter to the Soils Conservation and Rivers Control Council.

“The operation of draglines in rivers creates unnatural hazards, and from the deaths which have occurred there is no doubt that warning signs are necessary.” The secretary of the council (Mr E. M. Basil-Jones) added:

“This office concurs in the opinion of the DirectorGeneral that all catchment authorities should include the condition in any licences issued.”

Legal Opinion Given The board’s secretary, on receiving the letter from the council, wrote back pointing out that in a legal opinion obtained by the board in 1959 on a proposal to erect warning notices where work had beeen carried out at Lake Ellesmere, the board was told that the erection of such notices might result in the board sharing liability for a fatality at a point where there was no notice. In the board’s meeting yesterday, Mr A. T. Bell said it was “all very well putting up notices, but they were shot up in no time and floods took the notices away and shifted the holes. "Too Risky” "It is too risky to let the matter go without full investigation,” he said. He described the letter from the soil council as "a typical departmental evasive letter.” Mr H. E. Connor said all rivers were dangerous. Mr H. H. Petrie suggested that the council should undertake publicity to warn the public of the dangers.