SURVEY TO BE MADE

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1935, Page 7

SURVEY TO BE MADE

PARK BOARD BOUNDARY.

MEETING AT DAWSON FALLS. Beginning at the boundary of the East and South committees and working northward, a surveyor of the Lands and Survey Department will shortly begin a survey of the boundary of the Egmont National Park At yesterday’s meeting of the board at Dawson Falls it was reported that the department was undertaking the work free of cost to the board. It was decided to ask the surveyor to note any encroachment on the reserve by stock and to report. Mr. F. H. Waters, Commissioner of Crown Lands, said the survey would probably take three years, and would be carried Out when officers were available.

The New Zealand Railways advised that it was not intended to re-open the Waipuku metal pit meanwhile, except in Case of emergency. Later in the summer the department would be recovering some of the material, when every precaution against fire would be taken. The Railways Department was taking a definite stand on the legal point, said Mr. Anderson. He considered the rights of the board and the railways should be defined. The railway had taken out 1600 or 2000 trucks of material, said Mr. Thomson.

In reply to a question by Mr. Walkley, Mr. Anderson said he could not say whether any metal had been used for ballasting damage caused by the recent flood. The real question was whether the fence gates were being kept locked. The opening up of the pit was creating a fire menace in the scrub, said the secretary.

Moving a motion asking the department to keep the gates closed, the chairman said it would be better that the Park Board should handle the question in future, saving duplication by the East Committee.

“I am going to move that the position should be properly defined,” said Mr. Thomson. “The Railway Department cut down hundreds of trees and left them lying there, presenting a definite fire menace.” The motion was carried.

The Government audit office reported that an audit fee of £22 14s 6d owing by the board had not been paid. It was decided to write that the. board at present had no funds. Those present were Messrs. W. C. Weston (chairman), F. Amoore (North), G. J. Bayley, W. G. Walkley (South), P. Thomson, T. R. Anderson (East), F..H. Waters and L. Lovell, acting secretary. A request for a license to shoot goats, made by Mr. D. H. Rawson, New Plymouth, was refused.