CAMPERS BARRED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 3 February 1934, Page 13

CAMPERS BARRED.

Wires Stretched Across Metalled Road. COMPLAINTS AT ELLESMERE. A fence consisting of three wires stretched across a blind rodd near the Ellesmere Bridge oveV the Selwyn River was carried away by an unsuspecting motorist last evening. The road, which runs to the left off the main road at Irwell a short distance from the bridge, has been considered as a public road by the many campers and anglers who have for years used its metalled surface. The sound of the wires being wrenched from the sides of the bridge across a small creek running at right angles to the road attracted the attention, it is said, of the owner of the strip of property between the road and the river. The ensuing conversation between the driver of the car and the owner of the property was polite and restrained on both sides, but the property owner made it very clear that, while the would-be camper could have the use of the belt of tre-s on the side of the road, as had been his custom for a number of years, his children could not paddle or bathe in the river, over which the property owner declared that he had the rights as far as the centre of the bed. Neither could any angler fish in that stretch of water bordering his property. “ All the trout that come into that piece of water are mine,” he is stated to have declared. Fence Replaced.

The motorist camped as usual among the belt of trees on the wide road, and before returning to the city this morning he replaced the fence as he had found it. He is concerned at the possibility of campers being debarred from using the road, but is very much in doubt as to whether the property owner was acting within his rights. Several anglers state that they have met with considerable opposition from a property owner on the Irwell side of the just below the bridge. . It is stated that payment of one shilling has been demanded for use of the ford, which is said to be on the sits of the crossing used by the public before the present bridge was built. The campers and anglers interviewed this morning stated that they . were anxious to give every consideration to property owners, but in the process they did not want to have their own rights curtailed. They intend investigating the legal position.