Road opening ordered

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33446, 30 January 1974, Page 2

Road opening ordered

T'lcw Zealand Press Association)

ROTORUA. January 29. The Taupo County Council has been ordered to direct the American owners of the Poronui station, on the TaupoNapier road, to remove fences built across an unformed public road giving access to the Kaimanawa Forest Park.

The order was made in the .Taupo Magistrate’s Court toIday by Mr N. M. Izard, 5.M..1 I‘after the hearing of a pri-i ivate prosecution against the! I council for failure to act on| a public petition. The complaint was brought j i by a Taupo ratepayer, Mr D. lA. McGahey. an engineer, of 'Turangi, under section 146 'of the Public Works Act. He alleged that the council had failed to remove fences across the unformed part of Taharua Road, the disputed northern access to Kaimanawa Forest Park. The council was required ito show cause why it declined a petition calling for rhp rpmnval nF thp fpnrpq

The petitioners included members of the Federated Mountain Clubs, and Taupo angling, shooting, and boating clubs. The American owner of the land, Anzamco. was not a party to the action, and

was not represented in court. Mr J. D, Bathgate appeared

for Mr MeGahey and Mr J. D. Hole, of Taupo, for the council. The council’s case was that, the petitioners had failed to show that the fences caused public inconvenience. Giving his decision, the Magistrate said that he had not heard of such a case under the Act before. He found that the council had failed to show cause why notices should not be issued to the landowner to remove the fences. He ordered this to be done. “1 am satisfied that there

are 15 fences erected across Taharua Road, and that these constitute a public inconvenience,” the Magistrate said.