ABOLITION OF RIVER BOARD

Chronicle (Levin), 17 May 1947, Page 3

ABOLITION OF RIVER BOARD

DISSOLUTION iN NOVEMBEB SOUGHT Definite steps to secure the abolition of the Manawatu-Oroua River Board on. the date in November when the existing board normally goes out of office are to be taken by the Manawatu Catchment Board following a resolution to this effect carried at a meeting held in Palmerston North on Tuesday. A report on a meeting of subcommittees from the two boarcls held on May 1 to discuss this subject was tabled, No resolutions had been passed at that meeting, but representatives of the river board had strongly recommended co-operation between the two bodies rather than abolition. Mr. R. J. Law addressed the meeting on the prosecution of a major engineering scheme for the lower river area, and the matter of expediting it. He stated that in his opinion the time was not opportune for the abolition of- the Manawatu-Oroua River Board, but it was a time for co-operation in order to prosecute a major scheme to give relief to the whole of the lower area of the Manawatu River. He suggested cooperation both on the engineering and clerical sides. Mr. Law stated that 90 per cent. of the ratepayers in the Mana-watu-Oroua River Board area were opposed to abolition. As they would each be called upon. to contribute towards any major scheme, it would be as well for the catchment board and the river board together to interview the Minister of Works to secure the finance nationally for the major scheme as far as possible, the area concerned to make a lump sum payment as small as possible on the same basis of finance as that used for the Whirokino scheme. Mr. Law said that if such assessed lump sum was of a small amount, it could be financed by the present classification ^of -the river board,' and suggested that consideration be given to this form of finance by the catchment board, with a view to expediting the scheme. Mr. J. D. Aitchison stated that he was of the opinion that there was nothing the two boards could do together that the catchment board could not do alone, both in the direction of prosecuting /the work and the arrangement of the finance for it. In .his opinion nothing- given to- the meeting by«Mr Law- would in any way justify the catchment board altering its previous decision to abolish the river board. There was little discussion of the report, Mr. Aitchison moving that steps be taken to secure the abolition of the river board in November, 1947. It was seconded by Mr. H. R." Jehsen and -carried, Messrs. J. B. Crystall, R. R. Lind and S. W. Barber dissenting.