Catchment Boundaries

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 43, 4 May 1948, Page 5

Catchment Boundaries

Concluding Stages Of Commission’s Inquiry Closing stages of the Local Government Commission’s inquiry into the Bay of Plenty catchment district boundary question last Thursday revealed objections by Federated Farmers and the Tauranga Borough to the proposal of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council that the district should extend from the Waiaua river, Fast of Opotiki, to Waihi. Earlier in the hearing, objections had been expressed by the Whakatane County and 1 Borough, Rotorua County and Rangitaiki Drainage Committee. Supporters of the scheme were the Tauranga and Opotiki Counties and the Opotiki Borough.

The Bay of Plenty Province of Federated Farmers, whose case was presented by the president, Mr A. C. .Friis, strongly advocated the exclusion of the of the Kaimai Range, which they claimed had no soil erosion problem that could not be handled by sound farming methods. Tauranga and Katikati farmers with practical experience in that area gave evidence in suppor of Mr Friis’s submissions.

Evidence of the Mayor of Tauranga, Mr L. R. Wilkinson, favoured the division of the area into two catchment districts along the lines earlier suggested by the Whakatane Borough and County. He said that, as controller of civil defence in the Bay during the war, he had found that there’ were two definite centres —Tauranga in the west and the Whakatane-Opotiki' area in the east. He believed two smaller, compact districts, each with definite community of interest, would make for greater working efficiency. In conclusion it,was argued by Mr H. O. Cooney, for the Tauranga County and in support of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council’s proposition, that one Catchment Board, covering the whole of the Bay of Plenty as one district, would be able to retain better qualified staff and more efficient plant, thus’handling the work more capably and economically than would be possible under the proposed alternative. On the other hand, Mr B. S. Barry, for the Whakatane County and Borough, claimed * that the division into two districts, each compact in its community of interest and community of problem, would give even better administration and tend towards quicker action in tackling the work that had to be done. Any added cost would be more than offset by added efficiency.