Clive Bibby: Plains farmers face new threat

The Ruataniwha Plains.

As someone who emigrated to the East Coast from CHB over 50 years ago, I can speak with some authority on matters relating to personal feelings about whenua.

If your upbringing was anything like my own in Waipawa, you will know that the nostalgic pangs of belonging never leave you and in fact the longer you stay away, the more drawn you are to return.

My forebears once owned a sizable chunk of the land adjacent to the area surrounding the proposed Ruataniwha dam site and a couple of my cousins (4th generation) still farm a few of those properties. I am proud of the way my relatives have operated as guardians of this important part of HB real estate over 140 years.

They have faced every type of pestilence, hard times and personal tragedy you can name but at the end of it all have always taken very seriously their responsibilities to care for land in the best interests of all their fellow citizens who depend on the bounty this piece of fertile dirt can produce. Most of the other farmers in the district operate under
similar commitments.

The beneficiaries of their good judgment and dedication are all Hawke's Bay residents. Their commitments have always been based on regional responsibilities - what's good for CHB has to be good for Napier Hill or those living and working on the Heretaunga plains.

But times have changed and the pastoral economy of CHB (Ruataniwha plains) is under threat like never before. This threat is in two forms which together could decimate this vital sector of the wider HB economy.

The first is the potential effects of climate change on an already drought prone area of productive land and the second are the invading forces of recently elected HBRC representatives from Napier and Hastings. These are the forces I referred to earlier as the colonialists.

It beggars belief that supposedly intelligent people could campaign on a platform of what I believe is unbridled selfishness when you consider the impact that will undoubtedly flow from their published intent to can the dam.

There is no question that should the dam proposal not be allowed to proceed, these councillors will have a lot of questions to answer when seeking re election next time around.

I would doubt their ability to explain their mistakes when the chickens, or in this case lost opportunities, come home to roost.

- Clive Bibby is a 4th generation member of a well known CHB farming family who has been farming at Tolaga Bay on the East Coast since 1980.