Pressure to protect undeveloped river

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 5

Pressure to protect undeveloped river

Wellington reporter Conservationists and some Government Departments are annoyed that the last undeveloped river in the Waitaki Basin — the Ahuriri River — is not going to be protected properly. At a recent meeting the National Water and Soil Conservation Authority decided to recommend to the Minister of Works, Mr Friedlander, that the local conservation notice procedure be followed for the river. This meeting was held in committee but the authority followed the recommendation of its two associated bodies, the Water Resources Council and the Soil Con-

servation and Rivers Control Council. Neither the advice of these two councils nor the national authority’s discussion and decision have been published. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries the Wildlife Service, the New Zealand Acclimisation Societies and the Water and Soil Division of the Ministry of Works bad all recommended that the Ahuriri River be subject to the National conservation order process. However the Wildlife Service had not sought a national order for the fish, though the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had. The Wildlife Service had sought the national order

process for wildlife only. The local conservation notice process had been sought by the Mackenzie County Council and the Waitaki Catchment Commission. It was too early for the Aorangi United Council to express an opinion. The difference between the two processes is at the heart of the growing dismay over the national authority’s recommendation. A national order will bind the Crown, whereas a local notice will not. Having a local notice may not ultimately frustrate development of the Ahuriri River or conserve those values for which protection has been sought.