KARAPIRO LAKE

Putaruru Press, Volume XX, Issue 1193, 1 August 1946, Page 4

KARAPIRO LAKE

A NATIONAL PLAYGROUNE Committee Of Investigation Report To the Minister i A special departmental commit I tee, set up to investigate proposal: for creating a national reseivs around the future Karapiro Lake toured the area on Monday. The committee consisted of Mr. F. B. Stephens, advisory officer to the Internal Affairs Department, M*r. , Grant, engineer of the Soil Conser- | vation Council, Mr. Lowry, of the i Lands and Survey Department, and I Mr. J. W. Cox, secretary of the ' Town Planning Board. Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald, engineer of the Matamata County Council, who originat--led the idea of a national 'reserve around the' lake, is a co-opted member of the committee, and met the : other members on the spot. Mr. A. 'C. Caldwell, district hydro-electrical : engineer, also went with the party. 1 The investigation ie the result of a promise made by the Hon. W. E. Parry, when the scheme was before him at Cambridge last Nov- ( ember by Mr. Fitzgerald, who had drawn a tentative picture of the future lake so that the Minister and I those waiting upon him could vis- ! Ualise what was proposed. | The scheme, in brief, which was supported by the "Matamata County Council and other local bodies and the Automobile Association, proI posed that sufficient land should be reserved around the lake to form 1 not only a fishing reserve but a | real national playground. The lake will be approximately 14 miles in length, and to prevent private speculation and the creation of eyesores it was suggested that the Government not only reoerve a wide strip around the whole area, but also that further areas he taken to pneserve (the historic battlefield of T.aumatawiwtt, on which Te Waharoa’s braves defeated ten times the number of the Ngati-marus, and for the creation of fishing lodges and reserves, camp sitco, boat harbours, afierrestation, game reserves, duck sanctuaries together with a model village in which partially disabled ex-servicemen might and tend to the requirements of the, playground as a whole. Incidentally, the future lake will provide one of the finest straight rowing coursep in the world, witlr natural grandstands on either side from which a championship race can be viewed from sta-t to finish by tens of thousands of spectators. Nothing will bo known of the committee’o report until it is presented to the Minister of Internal Affairs, but it appears that members of the committee shared the Minister’s initial enthusiasm, and it is confidently expected that the scheme submitted will satisfy the meet far-seeing and exacting of local' enthusiasts who first visualised the area as a national playground.