Manapouri 'A Lesson To Governments’

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32367, 5 August 1970, Page 14

Manapouri 'A Lesson To Governments’

The controversy surrounding the proposal to raise the level of Lake Manapouri should be a lesson to future Governments to govern more openly and honestly than they had done with the Lake Manapouri issue, it was stated in Christchurch last evening.

In an address to a meeting of the SceneryPreservation Society, Professor A. Mark, of the University of Otago botany department, said that the controversy would also be a lesson to future Governments to plan with more foresight and with more application of scientific investigation.

“Only recently has the Government seen fit to undertake scientific investigations,” he said during a lecture on ecology and conservation.

Such investigations had only resulted after pressure from outside the Government.

“Then they saw fit to make their belated studies. I think we have earned the disgust of the New Zealand Electricity Department in using their money to collect evidence which we will use against them,” he said. Everyone would agree, including the politicians, Professor Mark said, that recent l

studies related to Lake Manapouri should have been completed and analysed before any commitment was made by the Government to Comalco. “Very Enlightened” Professor Mark spoke of a “very enlightened" attitude shown by the large number of engineers involved in efforts to stop Lake Manapouri being raised. “Regardless of the eventual outcome, the issue marks an important milestone in making New Zealanders aware of the importance of their natural resources,” he said. In his lecture, during which Professor Mark made extensive use of coloured slides, he pointed out the widespread loss of shoreline vegetation which would occur if the lake was raised and the impossibility of recreating the varriety of beaches which are found round the lake. He questioned whether New Zealand could afford to give up the natural resources surrounding the lake “merely for a 4} per cent increase in energy.”

Evidence presented to the Commission of Inquiry on Lake Manapouri last week by

a Wellington engineer on behalf of the Scenery Preservation Society was considered too technical for immediate decision by the lawyers representing the New Zealand Electricity Department, who asked for a week to study the submission. Cost Study

This was reported at the society’s meeting last night Comments were made on the submission—a cost-benefit study prepared by a Wellington engineer, Mr R. W. Everett.

The vice-president of the i society (Mr I. G. B. Wilson) . said that the Electricity De- , partment had until tomorrow [ to study the submission after , which Mr Everett would be , cross-examined on his pro- . posals. The submission prepared for the Preservation Society, Mr Wilsqn said, was based ■ on a suggestion that a theri mal power station would be more economic use of finance than the huge amounts that would be wasted in the development of Lake Manapouri as an electric power source as at present envisaged. Lake Manapouri could be maintained at its present level at a reasonable cost, which was significantly less than that estimated in the Cabinet committee report, the Commission of Inquiry was told yesterday, according to a Press Association message from Wellington. Mr C. J. Macfarlane, a consulting and civil engineer in Invercargill, said this in his submissions to the commission.

He said that if the annual cost of not raising Manapouri was about $BOO,OOO this would not be an exorbitant amount to pay for the environmental asset saved.

And, if the total New Zealand generating system was investigated particularly with the view to developing the Maui gas field it “may well” be uneconomic to raise the level of the lake. Logical Alternative Mr Macfarlane said that the logical location for alternative generating capacity, if the lake was not raised, was in the North Island—where the power would be used. If the centre of the electrical load was in the northern half of the North Island there would be less transmission line loss if the power was generated near there, he said.

The most attractive means of providing alternative thermal generating capacity would be to bring forward the development of the New Plymouth station, which was designed to have five generators, Mr Macfarlane said.