County Council Favours Borough & County Only

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 33, 31 March 1948, Page 5

County Council Favours Borough & County Only

A resolution re-affirming the Whakatane County Council’s considered opinion that the Bay of Plenty Catchment District should comprise only the Whakatane Borough and County areas and stating that if a Catchment District were established in this area the Whakatane County Council would undertake, at the pleasure of the Catchment Board, the administration and engineering work of such Board, the cost of such service not to be in excess of the Jd Catchment administrative rate, was passed by the Council’s monthly meeting last week. A copy of the resolution is to be • sent to all the local authorities in the proposed catchment district, and the Council also decided that the * County chairman, Mr J. L. Burnett, with Crs L. W. Luxton and D. C. Butler, with the County engineer and the County Clerk be a committee to collaborate with the Rangitaiki Drainage Committee, Whakatane Borough Council, other interested parties for the purpose of preparing the case for submission to the Local Government Commis-sion-in this matter. The Commission is to sit at the County Chambers April 28 and 29 to consider the question of a proposed catchment district to embrace the whole of the Counties of Tauranga and Whakatane, part of the Counties of Rotorua and Opotiki, small portions of the Counties .of Waikohu, Taupo and Matamata, and also the Boroughs of Opotiki, Whakatane, Te Puke, Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui.

Drainage Association's View Messrs. S. Spence, D. Radcliffe, W. R. Boon and I. Withy waited on the Council as a deputation representing the Rangitaiki Land Drainage Association. Mr Spence stated that the Committee before the Council had been authorised to collaborate with the Council in matters affecting the declaration of a Catchment Board in the Bay of Plenty. Whereas the drainage ratepayers did not desire to have the additional rating burden which would result from the formation of a Catchment Board area; they said it was felt that the Authorities were more or less determined that a Catchment Board should operate in this district. In the circumstances, the Rangitaiki drainage ratepayers were interested in the area which would be proclaimed a catchment district and this was so because of the vital necessity for the Rangitaiki' drainage area to have some say in the policy of the Catchment Board.

It could be said that the drainage of the Rangitaiki Plains was yital to the continued existence of such area as a farming district. It was thought that if a Catchment Board should come into existence that such a Catchment Board would make available funds for river work and control which might be of assistance to the Rangitaiki. Assuming then that the formation of a Catchment Board in the district was inevitable, the Drainage Committee felt that with a large Board, representation, would be too spread, and favoured the Whakatane County and Borough being declared a Catchment area.