Too many 'dead rivers' for writer

There were too many "dead rivers" in New Zealand without adding the Nevis, Brian Turner said yesterday.

The writer, who was speaking in favour of a move to ban dams on the Nevis River on behalf of the Central Otago Environmental Society, said there were more than enough dams and dead rivers in Otago and the South.

"They bear witness to our insensitivity as a people and reveal a poverty of the imagination," he said.

Advocates of dams on the Nevis and other rivers in the district were subscribers to tired, destructive doctrines.

They were "frequently wedded to the `there is no alternative' syndrome, are SOSOs [same old same olds], bereft of the spirit and will to seek alternative solutions".

"Otago and the South already have oodles of natural and artificial puddles, large and small.

We don't need more of them, least of all in the Nevis," Mr Turner said.

The Nevis was one of his favourite valleys, he said.

The society thought the Department of Conservation's negotiations in regard to tenure review in the area were a betrayal of the wider public's interests and concerns.

New Zealand Professional Fishing Guides Association spokesman Harvey Maguire, of Queenstown, gave evidence hydro-electricity development on the Nevis would affect the river's fishery and be a "blunder of epic proportions".

Mr Maguire said power developments had been slowly taking away the best rivers and the country could not afford to lose gems like the Nevis.

Clutha Fisheries Trust field officer Aaron Horrell, of Cromwell, said fish in the Nevis were cunning with age and notoriously difficult to catch.

"The challenge is knowing that you may only get one opportunity; a single cast to fool a potential trophy into taking your fly," he said.

"Get it wrong and the fish will sulk from view, leaving you frustrated but in awe of what could have been . . . It adds to the uniqueness of this fishery."

Day 4

Tribunal: Richard Fowler (chairman), Carolyn Burns and Rauru Kirikiri.

Application: To amend the existing Water Conservation Order to prevent damming or diversion of the Nevis River.

Yesterday: Evidence was heard from Bannockburn residents Anne and Edgar Parcell,Clutha Fisheries Trust field officer Aaron Horrell, kayakers Max and Gordon Rayner, fisheries scientist Richard Boyd, Central Otago Environmental Society committee member Brian Turner, lawyer and film-maker Jay Cassells, angler John Barlow, New Zealand Professional Fishing Guides Association spokesman Harvey Maguire, Greg Wilkinson, Cromwell Rod and Gun Club member Allan Campbell.

Quote of the day: "Sometimes I feel like a tribal elder telling stories to our young kayakers of stunning rapids which have been destroyed by power companies and no longer exist" - Gordon Rayner, Central Otago Whitewater.