HOROWHENUA LAKE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 193, 10 May 1919, Page 6

HOROWHENUA LAKE

_4 • - • A scheme for tlie lowering of the level of .Horowiienua Lake was mooted sonin years ago, the objejet being .the saving . i'rom degeneration into swamp a considerable area of land-on the margin of the lako which ivas being waterlogged by. .tiie rising of the. water-level in the lake due to tho "silting up of the outlet,, tho Hokio Stream. In 1910 the Horowiienua Lako Domain Board and the Horowiienua County Council were given certain powers: of a drainage board to go on with this ■work, tho object bciiis" th« saving. of ebiiie thousand acres of land ' which' otherwise would be • valueless. ■ To db tho drainage work the levol of the; lake was to be lowered , by eighteen inches the Hokio - Stream. • A. deputation from the two bodies concerned waited on Sir Francis Bell and tho Hon. G. W. Kusscll yesterday, being introduced and supported--by-Mr-.- WVII. -P.ietd, JI.P. They; pqiuted-out a' difficulty which had ..arisen. • 'It appeared that they had- no -power to deopen tho watercourse, and .that they were threatened with an injunction to restrain them from injuring the fishing rights which .tho Natives had in the stream. Mr. I'ield represented that it was proposed.to clear the stream for oujy. three or four chains,, .arid .this would';not.. affect the -fishing.lights in any w-ay. - ;In reply to Mr. liusscll. M r * A. M.unk, chairman of He county council, said that evidence could lie-produced that the works proposed would- not lower the lako level below what it was live years ago. Sir l'Yancis Bell said the question did not concern his Department except vory indirectly, but personally he could not seo how-the Native .fishing rights would suffer at all by lowering the level of tho lake. It was a question whether the Minister of Internal Affairs eliould iiot 'have power to confer on local authorities tho powers of drainago boards to meet such a case as „tliis. Mr. Russell advised the deputation to ascertaiu exactly what its legal powers were, and advise liini- if they were insufficient. Ho would then consider whether it were desirable that further power should bo conferred. He wished it to bo clear that he was opposed to tho drainage of lakes which would destroy natural beauty spots. Members of the deputation agreed with this. 'J'liev desired only (o restore tho former, level of the lake so that valuable land might again' be brought into use,