A SILENT SPRING

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 6

A SILENT SPRING

(By

LEONE STEWART)

Postscripts are supposed to end messages. This one comes at the beginning of a story, because that Is where it belongs.

Early yesterday afternoon I walked over the Armagh Street bridge, admiring the new spring green of the willows and the burgeoning blossoms.

Just over the bridge, and about to turn into Oxford Terrace I was assailed by a more than usually noticeable stench of diesel oil. Now through my home flows 'a pleasant little creek which is often the recipient of industrial waste—overflow from domestic central heating plants—and other unpleasant effluents. So I am unhappily well acquainted with the smell of diesel oil, and our home is on the Christchurch Drainage Board’s visiting list. I retraced a few steps, looking down into the shadow of the softly-flowing Avon River. Sure enough, the telltale signs were there—targe blobs of evil-looking oil. Back at the office I telephoned the Drainage Board. No, they had not had a report of pollution, but they had had trouble at that spot before. Thanking me, they promised to investigate. Investigations are proceedj ing, I learnt later in the even- ! ing. But the sources of oil slicks are difficult to trace because usually with small quantities the main flow has passed before Drainage Board staff receive reports of it. This reporter was not merely enjoying a spring-time stroll yesterday afternoon, but retuning from a screening of a film, “Shadow Of Progress.” It was being seen by members of the Canterbury Women’s Division of Federated Farmers, “who are concerned with protecting our environment is every way.” “Shadow of Progress” graphically depicts the pollution Of our environment by people and industry. Made for the European Conservation Year, 1970, it was filmed in America and Europe.