WATER CONSERVATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23895, 24 August 1939, Page 7

WATER CONSERVATION

HIGH COUNTRY PROPERTIES ACQUISITION BY STATE HELD UP BY LACK OF FINANCE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Aug. 23. Acquisition by the State of freehold properties on high country for water conservation and protection purposes has been held up because of lack of finance and of legislative authority, states the annual report of the Lands Department, dealing with lands for settlement, which was presented to Parliament fo-day. Large areas of Crown land have, however, been resumed for these purposes, the report adds. "During the year further attention has been given to the question of the best method of dealing with blocks of Crown land which possess little if any value for settlement, but which nevertheless have a very real value to the State if they can be conserved in their natural state," the report says. "As a result areas totalling nearly 250,000 acres were handed over to the State Forest Service for proclamation as a permanent State forest, and approval was also given for the permanent preservation of more than 150,000 acres of provisional State forest reserves.

"An endeavour has also been made to exercise closer control over high country runs let under pastoral licences with a view to checking indiscriminate burning and the burning off at wrong times of the year, and various cases that have come under notice have been investigated with a view to impressing on the licensees concerned the need for complying with the terms of their licences. Various freehold properties Which are situated in high country in various parts of the Dominion and which should, if possible, be owned by the State for water conservation and protection purposes, have been noted, but both the legislative authority and the finance for their acquisition have been lacking. There has, however, been considerable activity in the purchase of pri-vately-owned bush lands for scenic reserves within the somewhat narrow limits imposed by the smallness of the department's vote xfor that purpose."