CATCHMENT BOARD

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 9, 6 October 1943, Page 4

CATCHMENT BOARD

Christchurch Opposition

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.i CHRISTCHURCH, October 5. Opposition to the immediate establishment of a Christchurch catchment board was expressed by the soil conservation committee of tlie Canterbury Progress League whieh prepared a report on tlie question. The chairman of tlie committee, Mr. McCaskill, said today that tlie proposal ran directly counter to the procedure the league considered should be adopted for effective and efficient soil conservation in Now Zealand. Tlie league objected to the move liecause tlie proposal was illogical and because it asked the local bodies concerned to agree to tlie establishment of rigid machinery without even demonstrating the need for it, without, having studied the area and the special problems in question, without having shown that the boundaries of the proposed catchment area had been based on any study of the area and its needs, and without having persuaded the publie which was to finance the venture that soil erosion in this region was a matter with which it was directly or.indirectly concerned. Tlie league objected also because it held Unit the establishment of a new local body with power to levy rates should lie based on adequate' information and lengthy consideration and because of tlie unsuitability of the board’s proposed boundaries, which had the appearance of being arbitrarily fixed, whereas they would be better determined by field observation.