RECLAIMING LAKE LAND

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 21

RECLAIMING LAKE LAND

Farmer’s Plan Discussed Plans by Mr A. H. C. Nutt to reclaim his Lake Ellesmere; land at Motukarara were again discussed by the Norths Canterbury Catchment Board at its meeting yesterday, when Mr D. R. Wilkie said that the board will consider its policy on the wider aspects of lake reclamation. Mr Wilkie said that the Soil Conservation Council had suggested that the board consider a bigger scheme, and the board itself had talked of reclaiming 5000 to 6000 acres. The secretary (Mr W. W. Brough) said that the board in 1961 had accepted the view that reclamation of the lake margins was inevitable, and that a 5900 acre pilot scheme was desirable. Mr Nutt, with his proposals for banking, drainage and pumps, had acted because the board had done nothing, said Mr Wilkie. Why, if reclamation was inevitable, did Mr Nutt have to bear the. whole cost of his job? Mr E. J. Stalker said that the board at least should help Mr Nutt with the considerable cost he would face in desalting the land. As Mr Nutt’s scheme was land development, it did not qualify for any board subsidy, but Mr Nutt could well get help from the Lands Department, said the chairman (Mr R. M. D. Johnson). The board approved Mr Nutt’s scheme, subject to his getting technical advice and the board’s engineering approval, and agreed to ask the Soil Conservation Council to pay a subsidy on pumping costs, and to suggest to Mr Nutt that he sought help from the Land Department.