Rakaia may clear path for others

Press, 2 October 1987, Page 3

Rakaia may clear path for others

By

JANE DUNBAR

The Court of Appeal’s decision on the Rakaia River water conservation order may have cleared the way for a series of applications for similar orders in other parts of New Zealand. The director of the New Zealand Acclimatisation Societies, Mr Bryce Johnson, said a number of other applications had been on hold, waiting for the Rakaia case to be decided. Now that the Intent of the law had been clarified, “we should see a flurry of activity in terms of the processing of other orders,” he said. The Court’s decision had meant conservation values would now have primacy ahead of development values, he said.-

The decision would bring benefits for the public, and was an example of the need for agents like the acclimatisation societies. The conservation director of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, Dr Gerry McSweeney, said that at a time when the future of the societies was under debate, it showed clearly the value of their independence. He said the decision to

protect waters of the upper Rakaia and set tight flow regimes for the lower Rakaia was good news for the threatened wrybill player, for fishlife, and for the important wetlands of the Lake Heron basin and the Hydra Swamp. The decision is not good news for Federated Farmers, however, as it points the way to restricted use of the river for irrigation. The senior vice-presi-dent of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, Mr Ness Wright, said the decision would in effect tie up multiple use of water in New Zealand unnecessarily. "It has built too many safeguards into the multiple use of water,” he said. The manager of freshwater fisheries at M.A.F Fish in Christchurch, Dr Bob McDowall, said the decision was an endorsement of the acclimatisation societies’ concern that the Rakaia was a nationally valuable resource. A former president of the New Zealand Salmon Anglers’ Association, Dr Ken Hughey, said it was “thrilled to bits” with the decision. “We consider the decision to be extremely just,” he said.