RIVER BOARD WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 36, 11 August 1930, Page 11

RIVER BOARD WORKS

A MARLBOROUGII CASE

Decision has been delivered by the Court of Appeal in tho case of the AttorneyGeneral, tho Wuhan Harbour Board, and T. Eckford and Co., Ltd., a shipping company, against the Wairau River- Hoard.

In the Supreme Court, the appellants asked for an injunction restraining the Eiver Board from prosecuting river works in the area within the jurisdiction of tho Harbour Board, and a mandatory injunction requiring the Eiver Board to remove the works that already had been completed. In tho course of a judgment delivered in the Court of Appeal by their Honours the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) and Mr. Justice Adams, their. Honours said: "The only question argued in the Court below, and the only question now before this Court, is whether or not, upon the true construction of the relevant statutory provisions, the defendant River Board has any power or authority to erect flood protection works within the Wairau Harbour district, which, by section 9 of the Wairau Harbour Act, 1907, is defined as comprising the borough of Blenheim and the Omaka Koad.District. This question, . Mr. Justice Reed decided in favour of the defendants. ... We agree. . . . In our opinion, the judgment appealed from is correct, provided that it is hot construed as meaning that; the defendant River Board may carry out works within the actual limits of the Wairau Harbour, as defined by the Governor-General's warrant." Their Honours Mr. Justice Hcrdman and Mr. Justice Blair concurred in that the appeal should bo dismissed. At the hearing Mr. M. J. Gresson (Christchurch), with .him Mr. A. C. Nathan (Blenheim), appeared for the appellants, and Mr. H. Johnston, K.C., and W. T. Churchward (Blenheim) for the respondent.