Anglers’ plea for Rakaia rejected

Press, 25 September 1982, Page 6

Anglers’ plea for Rakaia rejected

An attempt to protect the Rakaia River for use by salmon anglers has been rejected by the resource committee of the North Canterbury Catchment Board. The committee agreed with the board’s secretary, Mr 8.. J. Mairs, who reported yesterday that the board was unable to grant a water right application from the New Zealand Salmon Anglers' Association Inc. -The 1 application sought a right for the association to, “represent its members who use the natural water of the Rakaia River as a recreational salmon fishery." Its purpose was to maintain the Rakaia as a recreational fishery for the association’s members. :Mr Mairs' conclusion, supported by legal advice, was that fishing the Rakaia was

not a "positive use of natural water” under the Water and Soil Conservation Act. “That right is- embodied in the terms of the association's own constitution and is not something to be conferred by the grant of a water right.” Mr Mairs said. The association’s application was for a right for a "passive or natural inherent” use df the Rakaia, but there was no provision in the act for granting such a right. Under the act, the board was to have regard for passive or natural inherent uses in river management. The association’s president, Mr Ken Hughey, said in a letter to Mr Mairs that denying the association the right to be heard on the same footing as irrigators and salmon farmers would be a “travesty of justice."

In the association's opinion, the act regarded salmon anglers as legitimate and positive users of natural water. "As such, any application for a water right to promote and protect these interests should be proceeded with in the normal fashion," Mr Hughey said. Mr T. N. D. Anderson said that only the application’s wording prevented it from being accepted. “I would suggest that a rightly-worded application would be accepted under the act,” Mr Anderson said. The association had made a good case for its members’ activities being defined as a positive use. “From my reading of the act I do not think this term ‘positive use’ is anything more than arbitrary," he said.