Rivers ‘picked off’

Press, 14 March 1980, Page 2

Rivers ‘picked off’

Blenheim New Zealand rivers were being picked off one by one, modified, and destroyed,said Dr Robert McDowell, of the Ministry of Agriculture and. Fisheries, yesterday.,;;

: He told the annual meeting, of the Council of South Island Acclimatisation Societies that people seeking > protection for the rivers went before tribunals as beggars—and were indulged.? -: Dr McDowell called for the introduction of a national policy for the use of New Zealand’s water resources. •

He said the issue should be raised at Government level and the Government should be told New Zealand’s water resources were being developed in a haphazard manner. “The aquatic resources of New Zealand are not being developed with the future in mind,” Dr McDowell said. “The country needs to sit down and

think about its water resources.” Dr Donald Scott, secretary of the councils’ national water protection committee, said' he agreed that a national policy would be desirable, but whether it could be instituted in a desirable form was debatable.

" Discussion on the protection of rivers was coupled with discussion on the National Development Act. A member of the North Canterbury society, Mr D. Rule, said members of societies were all “uptight” about the act.

He said Ministers were guided to a great degree by heads of Government departments. Under the act, they streamlined and societies had less time to prepare their cases. “We have fought water rights left, right, : and centre In Canterbury—and left, right, and centre we have lost them,” Mr Rule sayl. If societies were going to fight, they had to have data available, Mr Rule

said; If Dr McDowell’s suggestion came into force it would solve a lot of problems. “It is one of the greatest things that could happen,” Mr Rule said. “We very rarely influence . departments when it; comes to water abstraction, but it is costing a lot of money.”

The director of the Wildlife Service (Mr R. Adams) told the meeting that New Zealand was going to be developed and some of its rivers were going to be lost. It should be well known which of them were' worth, fighting for. The Waitaki. Valley delegate/ Mr J. Fenwick, said his society had carried out a lower Waitaki land-use study. It now thought it had “a case for the future.” He would like to see all societies do what Waitaki Valley had done, Mr Fenwick said.. Most societies fell down because they had not done enough work on all their rivers, he said. This was very necessary to fight water rights.