THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, June 12, 1946. THE CASE FOR A C.V.A.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26176, 12 June 1946, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, June 12, 1946. THE CASE FOR A C.V.A.

The statement by the Prime Minister, which was printed in our columns yesterday, that the Government may incorporate the catchment authorities’ engineering work under the Works Department, draws attention to the fact that Otago still lags behind in the setting up of a governing body for the control of its rivers and soil erosion. There is, however, a very simple explanation for this. Until unanimity is reached on the constitution of the pi’oposed catchment board which is to undertake the tremendous task of taming the Clutha River any decisions regarding control in smaller districts must, inevitably be delayed. So closely is the Clutha associated with the province as a whole, and so sensitive is a large proportion of the province’s primary industry to-its vagaries and outbursts, that public opinion is coming to support the view that the geographic features of Otago demand that river control and soil erosion, with the exception, of course, of the Waitaki basin, should be the responsibility of the whole province. The local bodies in the Clutha watershed are almost unanimous in this view, and the Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Federation has given it approval. It is pointed out that whereas the watershed of the river embraces an area of 7570 square miles with a capital value of £9,775,000, the wider area which would include the whole of Otago with the exception of the Waitaki basin would incorporate 12,600 square miles with a capital value of £44,341,000. Acceptance of the latter scheme would mean that the City of Dunedin, as the outlet for the province, would be included in the catchment district, with the consequent levying of a catchment rate on the metropolitan area. The continued prosperity of Dunedin is indubitably dependent on the progress of the country behind it, and to that extent the city has an obligation to interest itself in the rehabilitation of rural areas, but the possibility of being asked to contribute rates to an exterior body is one that will be viewed with some alarm by the already heavilyburdened town dwellers. Whatever the outcome may be, it is apparent that a considerable part of the major works to be undertaken will become the responsibility of the Works Department. Such projects as dams and hydroelectric schemes must be tackled as national undertakings. It is also imperative that the plan of development announced recently by the Minister of Works should be coordinated with whatever plans a catchment board decides upon for river protection, afforestation and other means of arresting erosion and controlling rivers. The question has been asked whether this co-ordination could not be best achieved by imitating to some extent the example set by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States. This authority, backed by the Government, has undertaken a huge reclamation scheme and has succeeded in rehabilitating an area of thousands of square miles which had been devastated by'floods and erosion. It draws the greater part of its income for the continuance of its work from the sale of electric power from its hydro-electric works and from levies on the lands it has restored to fertility, thus achieving the ideal that those who reap the benefits are those who are called upon to pay. While it cannot be suggested that an altogether similar scheme is either desirable or practical in Otago, the peculiar difficulties to be overcome in this province indicate that some such body as the T.V.A., with powers to co-ordinate national and local efforts in what is admitted to be a problem of national magnitude, might yet prove the most satisfactory answer to the question which is perplexing town and country alike. , »