Apricots and trout for Mr Muldoon

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 1

Apricots and trout for Mr Muldoon

PA Dunedin The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) will receive first-of-the-season Newcastle apricots from the Cromwell Gorge and a 2.3 kg trout from the Ahuriri River this morning by courtesy of Ecology Action: O.tago. ; ' V ■/.But the .fruit may turn sour when Mr Muldoon reads the accompanying letter. The gift will be flown by courier to his holiday home at Hatfields Beach, Auckland. The letter says that the apricots come from the “dam-threatened Cromwell Gorge,” and the trout from the “dam-threatened Ahuriri River.” “That you can enjoy them at Christmas is not pure chance. The Gorge apricots, grown - on the highest-quality land in a unique, frost-free climate, ripen some two weeks than the main crop.

“The trout fishermen of Otago have until recently considered it a tradition and a right to fish some of the finest free-flowing rivers in the world. It would seem that this tradition is to be sold, with so much else, down our rivers.

‘‘We wish to remind you that New Zealand’s greatest resources are river-fed land and Eu people destroy the one arid you would threaten the other. .: : ■...

“You have wished the

people of New Zealand a •good New Zealand Christmas.’ We also wish you a good New Zealand Christmas, with Cromwell Gorge apricots and Ahuriri trout.” ... . .... .

The letter is signed by Mrs M. A. Colbert, secretary of Ecology Action Otago,..on behalf of the president,. Professor J. D. Omer-Cooper. A pamphlet opposing the high dam and development of the Clutha power for the second smelter has been delivered to more than 1000 residents in the lower Clutha

area by the Aramoana Campaign. The pamphlet says the development will cause a decline in the area, increase power bills, flood farmland, and disrupt natural fisheries. “Construction towns are no substitute ’for productivity. Look at Twizel,” the pamphlet says.

It encourages people to write, in opposition to the development, to various politicians and groups and invites gifts to oppose the establishment of the second aluminium smelter at Aramoana.