Roads Fenced Off.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20237, 22 February 1934, Page 8

Roads Fenced Off .

Public Rights.

Sportsmen Discuss Unfair

Treatment.

POLLOWING DISCUSSION as to the rights of landowners in the Ellesmere district to exclude the public from property which they declared was theirs, Mr C. F. Champion, a member of the Council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, last night produced a plan which he had prepared showing the various public roads in the vicinity of Lake Ellesmere and the Selwyn River. The plan, which he placed before the council of the society at its meeting last night, was prepared after careful study of the survey maps. It was stated that in some cases farmers had fenced off the roads and refused the. public the right to use them and, in one case, a farmer had charged the public a fee to go on what was public property. Mr Champion stated that very few members of the public knew of the existence .of several roads which had been fenced off by owners of the adjoining land. From Chamberlain’s Ford to Coe’s Ford, he stated, there was a public road, though there was no indication that it existed. Bethell’s Road, which was formed to the angle just above the Ellesmere bridge, continued to the river, and at Coe’s Ford there was a very large public reserve on the north bank of the river. The road from Chamberlain's Ford was well defined on one side, but on the other side it apparently followed the course of the river. He had prepared the plan because there had been some discussion of the action of landowners in putting fences across public roads so as to keep people from using, them. In one case a man had fenced off a road and charged the public for using it. If a landowner claimed that persons were trespassing on his land the onus was on him of having it surveyed and showing where the roads were. A member asked if there was any possibility of a man renting a road area from the county council. Mr Champion said that even a county council did not have the power to give a man the absolute right to land defined as a public road. Mr W. C. Millar said that the question was very important to sportsmen. He understood that an application had been made to the Springs County Council to have a road closed and the council took a favourable view of the matter. What was the position in such a case, he asked. Mr Champion said he thought the county council would have to obtain permission from the Lands Department. There w-ere dozens of roads running into the Lake Ellesmere area that were not defined on the ground. One road ran from the mouth of the Irwell River round the lake almost to the mouth of the Selwyn River. Mr Champion was thanked for presenting the plan to the society and for the interest he had taken in the question.