ELLESMERE LEVEL

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31053, 7 May 1966, Page 16

ELLESMERE LEVEL

Miamias ‘High And Dry’

Hundreds of duck-shooters' miasmias had been left high and dry with the release of water from Lake Ellesmere by the North Canterbury Catchment Board, said Mr J. P. Glasson, a member of the North Canterbury Gameshooters’ Association, last evening. The duck-shooting season will open today. “It's most unfortunate,” he said. “There must be several hundred shooters who have already built their miasmias and now a great number of them are high and dry, including mine. They do this every year. It’s a great shame they can’t let it go for a week or so and let the shooters have a decent chance, at least for the opening of the season.”

With present dry conditions, there would have been little likelihood of flooding if the water level had been maintained longer. “We don’t take a very kind view of the Catchment Board over things like this,” Mr Glasson said. “Shooters have got to realise that it’s just one of the hazards of the sport in this area,” said Mr G. Mugford, chairman of the game committee of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society.

The Catchment Board would have lost a £1 for £1 Government subsidy on the operation if it had let out the water before the required level was reached, he said. While it was regrettable that the lowering of the lake coincided with the opening of the season, the board’s hands were tied. In general, the board was very co-operative. Mr Mugford said many shooters had been out yesterday afternoon and evening shifting their miasmias. Shooting today would be cramped, and some would have to try elsewhere.