RIVER PROTECTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2604, 10 July 1923, Page 3

RIVER PROTECTION.

LOCAL BODIES CONFERENCE. OUTCOME SATISFACTORY. A conference between members of the Moutoa Drainage Boai'd and the Manawatu-Oroua River Board was held at Foxton on Friday last. The following represented the Moutoa Board: Messrs F. S. Easton (chairman), W. E. Barber, J. Chrystall, A. King, and M. B. Bergin (solicitor), while Messrs R. T. Bell (chairman), R. McDonald, W. H. Smith, A. H. Grant, and P. E. Baldwin (solicitor), represented the River Board. The conference had been arranged for the purpose of discussing certain clauses in the ManawatuOroua River District Bill, at present before the House of Representatives. Some misapprehension appeared to have existed as to the provision in the bill enabling the river board to acquire protection works without acquiring the land on which such protection works were carried out. It was pointed out by the solicitor to the river boai-d, that under the River Boards’ Act, 1908, ample power bad been given to acquire any land on which protection works were erected, but that it was advisable to have power to acquire tiie works without the land in order that as far as possible the titles of the ratepayers should not be pre.judiciously affected by intersection of the x-iver boai-d’s land. Instances were given where a man’s property was seriously damaged and his farming operations hampered by the strip of land through his propei'ty being owned by local bodies. The representatives of the river boai'd promised that they would do their best to extend this power to include drains which it might be necessary to take in as a part of their system. At the conclusion of the meeting the chairman of the Moutoa Board expressed his thanks to the members of the river board for arranging the conference and further stated that the inclusion of the clause referred to was entirely satisfactory to his board.