Original Correspondence.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1034, 18 May 1894, Page 6

Original Correspondence.

MR J. W. THOMSON ON THE CLUTHA K.IYEK TRUST. TO THE EDITOR. Sib, — I have read with 'pleasure the report of a speech which Mv Mackenzie, of Kaitangata, recently delivered there on the subject of the opening up of the Clutha River for sea-going vessels. Mr Mackenzie had occasion to refer largely to the Clntha River Trust. He certainly deserves much credit for the industry he has displayed in hunting up from official documents information on the subject. On some points, however, his information 13 rather defective, and on others not quite correct. A good many persons have lately spoken to me about the Trust, and I find that the most of them are not very well informed about it. This is net to he wondered at, aa a new generation haa grown up since the Trust was formed. I would, therefore, with your permission, give a short sketch of the circumstances that led to its formation, and of the Trust itself. About 1860 the Provincial Council began to vote small sums of money for removing snags from the river. Ry-nnd-by — I think in 1863 — a stern- wheel steamer, the Tuapeka, was put on the river and continued to ply on it for several years. This led to the spending of considerable sums of money in the way of removing anags and rocka. For some years the removal of these obstructions cost the province upwards of LIOOO per annum. As time wore on it was seen that the keeping of the river open would be attended with constant expense, and also that it would be difficult in future years to get grants of public money for river purposes. In these circumstances ie was thought desireable to tako steps to get a block of land as an pndowment for the river. This idea came to a head in 1869. In that year a number of settlers in the Clutha petitioned the Provincial Council to get a block of land set apart as an endowment for river purposes. The result was that a committee was appointed to consider what was best to bo don<?. Ol this committee, Mr Clark, of Tokomairiro, was a member, and, I am sorry to say, the only member who is now alive. The committee took evidence and went into the the matter and came down with a report, the substance of which was that it was desirable that a block of land of 50,000 acres should be set aside as an endowment for the river and that a board should be formed to manage it. This was followed in a few days by a motion by Captain Mackenzie, the Chairman of Committee, as follows : " That an address be presented to His Honor the Superintendent, recommending that 50,000 acres of land situate in the Clutha Valley, should be set a»ido as an endowment for a trust for the Clutha River, and requesting that he will be pleased to cause an ordinance to be introduced without delay for the purpose <>f giving effect to the recommendation <>f t,ho select" committee on Trust for Clutha River." At this time the members for the Clntha in the Provincial Council wero the late Captain Mackenzie, the late Mr Donald Henderson and myself, and we did all be could to get effect given to the views of the petitioners. As bearing on this action and the public interest taken in the river, I may refer to to the yearly reports of Mr Balfour, who at that time was Provincial Marine Engineer. Hia reports always contained some useful and interesting information regarding the Clutha which had the effect of increasing public interest in it. In his report for 1863 he said that he considered that, without any great expense, the river might be made navigable for 59 miles from its mouth and in his report for 1864 he shows from experiments which he had made that the ordinary volume of water it discharges into the sea is 1.590,000 cubic feet pur minute. He prepared a table giving the discharges of other large rivers, and from this it appeared that the Clutha, as regards at least the volume of water it discharged into the sea, was considerably larger than the Nile, 5| times larger than the Tay, and 16 times larger than the Thames. During the recess that followed the carrying of Captain Mackenzie's motion the Government looked out a suitable block of land. The land they selected was runs 129, 258 and part of 90, extending in all to 50,200 acres. In the following year they moved and carried this resolution in the Council : " That an address be presented to His Honor the Superintendent, recommending that the parcel of land hereinafter described may be reserved and set apart, . and that all necessary steps be taken to vest the same in the superintendent, to be held by him upon trust for the purposes of the Hawke's Bay and Marlborough Rivera Act, 1868, for the purpose of raising a fund for erecting and maintaining works to be constructed and maintained by the Board of Conservators of the Clutha River District, when constituted under I the said Act," and th«jn follows a description of this proposed endowment. As-there seems to be some surprise that | the Hawke's Bay and Marlborough Rivera Act shoald be mentioned in connection with the Clutha River Trust, I may ex- , plain that this was an Act passed by the General Assembly for the purpose of giving persons whose land were liable to be flooded the power of forming Boards of ! Conservators and rating themselie9 for i the purposes of the Act. It was passed to j meet the case of provinces of Hawke's Bay

find Maryborough, but there was a clause in it to the fsffecb that the Provincial Council of any Province might bring the Act into operation within sncV- . province. In 1870 the Otago Provincal Oouncil passed an Ordinance bringing this Act into operation within the bounds of Otago. When a board for the Clutha River was first thought of the opinion was that all the money that would be got from any endowment would not be able to cope with all the works that would require to be undertaken, and that it would bo necessary to give to cany board that might be formed the power to rate, which they would have if constituted under the Act referred to. The Clufcba River Board was, however, ultimately formed under a special Act, and had never anything to do with the Hawke's Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act. It ao happened that the Provincial Council the very session in which it set aside land as a reserve for the purposes of j the Clutha River set aside also large pieces of land for educational and benevo- j lent purposes. These, with previous reserves, amounted to nearly 2,000,000 acres. The General Government considered that the reserves proposed were too lavge, and they refused to vest them in the Superintendent ks proposed , and they objected specially to the Ulutha reserve on the ground that the council went beyond its rights in making the reserve. The sixty-second clause of the Land Act 1866, under which the reserve was made, gave the Council power to make reserves for purposes of public utility, and the Government were advised by the Attorney-general that an endowment for the Clutha River being simply for local purposes could not be said to be for purposes of public utility, and was therefore ultra vires. The contest regarding the reserves went on between the Government and provincial authorities for four years— that is till 1874. In that year an arrangement was come to between the contending parties — the arrangement being that the reserve should be taken off all the lands proposed to be reserved by the Council, or in other words that all these lands should be thrown back into their original position of Crown lands, and that the Provincial Government should be allowed to select 500,000 acres of Crown land as an endowment for educational purposes alone, and that a bill should be introduced to give offect to this arrangement. This was done, and in due time the bill became law. There was in i.be bill no provision whatever regarding the reserve for the Clutha River, n«t eveu a clause enabling the Provincial Government to select a smaller area than the 50,000 acro3 as in the case of the proposed education reserves. The reserve was therefore in a fair way of being abandoned. Under these circumstances I myswlf — being at the time member for the Clutha—prepared a bill setting aside the land referred to as an endowment for the Clutha River. I introduced it into and carried it through the House, receiving ultimately the support of the Premlor, Mr Yogel, now Sir Julius Yog el, which was .wore than I expected. This is the Act known as- the " Clutha, River Trust Reserves Act 1874." Mr Mackenzie in his speech seemed to think there was something strange about the preamble of the Act. In the preamble I took occasion to narrate some of the steps that had been taken to get the land, and I did so just that it might appear on the face of the bill itself that I was not trying to give effect simply to some idea of my own, but that I was trying to s;ivft practical effect to the wishes of the Provincial Council of Otago, The object of the Act of 1874 was aimply to set aside the 50,200 acres as an endowment for the Clutha River. It is true that I might have made provision in the bill for the formation of a hoard to manage the trust lands, but it was now seen that a board formed tinder the Haw Ice's Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act would nob bo suited for managing an endowment, and I had not sufficiently considered what was best to be done under the present circumstances. The Provincial Council had power to constitute a board, and 1 provided in the bill that as soon as the Provincial Council should pass an ordinance .constituting a board, the lands should be held by such board for such purposes as should be specified in th« ordinance. I knew that the council was far more competent to deal with the question of a suitable board of management than I was. The Council, however, did not pass any such ordinance, and Mr Mackenzie refers to this, and seems to think it strange that they did not. I may explain how this happened. The matter came before the Provincial Council, and the Council passed resolutions in regard to it, in accordance with which the Provincial Solicitor prepared a bill with the intention of getting it passed through "Parliament. In these resolutions the Council expressed the opinion that it <vas desirable that the Board of Conservators should have the power not only of using the moneys arising from the lands for the purposes of the river, but also the power of administering the lands by way of leasing them in such areas as they might think proper, and that they should have this power for 50 years. It was thought that if the board had this power they would raise more revenue from the lands than would be raised from them if they were administered by the Laud Board. This was a power which the Provincial Council could not give the board. It could be given to them only by the General Legislature. The bill prepared by the Provincial Solicitor in terms of the resolutions passed by the Council was entrusted to the charge of Mr Macandrew, who was then Superintendent and also a member of the Hoti32. Mr Macandrew, knowing that this was a matter which very much affected the district I represented, asked me to take charge of the bill, which I did, and introduced it into the House. The Government opposed it on the ground that the bill proposed to give to th« board power to administer the land, and they said to me that if I would withdraw it they would themselves introduce a bill constituting a board for fhe Clutha River. I withdrew my bill and they introduced theirs, which became law. This is the Act of 1875, which constitutes a board and defines its powers. The Act provides thai the board should consist oT seven members, the members being chosen by the municipality of Balclutha and the road boards of Balmoral, Clyde vale,

Pomahaka, Clufcha, South Molyneux, and Matau, each of these sending one member. {To be continued.) \