INANGAHUA TO PRESS FOR CATCHMENT BOARD
[SPECIAL REPORTER] REEFTON, This Day.—Strong opposition to the formation of another rating authority—a catchment board for the northern West Coast-Buller area—was expressed by the Buller Council, replying yesterday to a recommendation by the Inangahua County Council. “It is the council’s opinion that it is fully competent to deal with all erosion problems inside the County of Buller,” the letter stated. “The Maruia rivers are said to be getting worse and worse, and will soon be out of hand,” said Cr A. Topp, urging further measures to form a catchment board.
“I just wonder how a local body such as the Buller County Council will not even participate in discussions on the subject,” said Cr C. Coxall. “They have not heard our side, nor we their’s.” .It was pointed out that the council, in spite of the Buller opposition, could proceed with its efforts to form a board. The Buller Council could be brought in compulsorily. The council, however, decided to arrange for a conference to be held at Reefton between representatives of the Westport Borough Council, the Murchison County Council, and the Inangahua County Council, on the subject, and, at the same time, to extend an invitation to the Buller Council.
The chairman, Cr J. S. McGregor, said Buller councillors were most hostile to the proposal, and would not agree even to talk about it. “I am convinced that it is hopeless to get Buller in,” he said, pointing out that the area’s , financial problems had a major bearing on the council’s attitude. The Murchison County Council was not in favour of a “big” catchment board with “high-flown” schemes, reported Cr W. Blackadder. “The engineers made a hash of a scheme hy exaggerating the- problem a hundred-fold,” he said. “It would have been better had they kept their feet oh the earth,” Cr
Blaekadder favoured the formation of a. rivers control body under the direct control of the local bodies concerned, rather than a catchment hoard- with its ramifications,
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Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1949, Page 7
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335INANGAHUA TO PRESS FOR CATCHMENT BOARD Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1949, Page 7
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