POLLUTION OF STREAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 7

POLLUTION OF STREAM

DESTRUCTION OF TROUT _____ SAWMILLERS FINED £lO From Our Own Correspondent TAUMARUNUI, Friday. In the Magistrate’s Court today before Mr. R. M. Watson, S.M., the Hayward Timber Company', Ltd., was charged with allowing sawdust or sawmill refuse to flow into the Kokometu Stream and the Ongarue River, in ] which trout exist, contrary to the pro- « visions of the Fisheries Act, 1908. i Information was laid under authority of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society*, for whom Mr. W. T. - appeared, Mr. J. A. Gordon, of Tau- . marunui, representing the defendant ' company’. Mr. Routledge said that he had 1 visited the defendants’ mill, and noticed * that a considerable amount of saw- s dust had been allowed to enter the - stream. The society and the Tau- i marunui Rod and Gun Club had gone | to considerable trouble and expense in ! stocking tho streams with trout, and ; the neglect of the company in allowing the sawdust to flow into the stream had been the cause of destroying the trout. The offence was a serious one ( and he asked for a penalty'. * Mr. Gordon explained that recently j the company had made preparations to j move the mill, and the sawdust heap T was neglected. The heap was protected ( after Mr. Routledge’s visit. Mr. j Gordon asked for a reasonable fine. £ The magistrate said he would take ‘ into consideration the protection to . the sawdust heap that had taken place , after attention was drawn to the pollution. The stream had been ruined 6 and the Act provided for a maximum penalty' of £SO. Defendants were fined ‘ £lO and costs. c