Conflict Predicted On Conservation

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 26

Conflict Predicted On Conservation

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 20. Conflict between economic progress and conservation of natural resources, as in the Manapouri dispute, is going to arise more often in the future, predicts the newly appointed chairman of the Environmental Council (Mr R. K. Davidson, Q.C., of Auckland).

The benefits of one must be balanced against the benefits of the other to reach a compromise which was to the benefit of all, he said today.

Mr Davison, who said he was taking up his new position with a completely open

mind, would not comment on the Manapouri issue. But seven years ago he was involved in a similar controversy when he appeared as counsel for eight organisations of residents who objected to the Electricity Department’s intention to erect power pylons to take transmission lines from Otahuhu to Henderson.

The residents wanted the pylons to be rerouted or the transmission lines placed underground, but the department established that the cost of these alternatives would be prohibitive. Looking back on this case, Mr Davison says he considered it a prime example of public wishes and convenience having to take second place for economic reasons. As chairman of the Environmental Council, Mr Davison finds himself somewhat in the position of a driver with-

out a car. No other appointments to the council have been announced, and the Government has not yet defined its aims or function. For this reason, he said, he could not comment on its role. Asked whether he saw a gap between concerned citizens and the people who made decisions about the use of the environment, he said: “At the present time there is a large number of uncoordinated bodies expressing views about the environment. These are often a lone voice. There certainly is a need for the views of the people to be heard, so that they can get more concerted action, rather than individual action, on these things. “Manapouri is a prime example of the public banding together and taking concerted action in respect of a particular matter that they feel strongly about"