RECLAMATION OF LAKE ELLESMERE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 593, 21 March 1882, Page 2

RECLAMATION OF LAKE ELLESMERE.

To the Editor.

Sir, —I have read the letter of Mr Coop attacking the proposed drainage scheme. Now, sir, it was I who unfolded the proposed scheme to Mr Gr. R. Joblin to lay before the County Council, which he has done without mentioning my name. I took no notice of this at the time, thinking he was feeling his way against prejudice, as I am only a woiking man ; but as I find the game is being taken out of my hands. I think it is high time for me to speak out in defence of my own scheme. In the first place, it is an absolute necessity for the success of the Peninsula Railway that Lake Ellesmere should he drained, which I maintain can bo done at an immense profit, according to my scheme ; and I am more than surprised that the man who painted a tunnel on his map when he sold the Piianna township, should be the first to throw a s-tuuibling—block in the way of its ever being constructed. ■'There are none so bind as those who won't see." Mr Coop argues that it is fresh wat-rthat floods the lake. If that is so. what makes the water so salt that no beast can dtink it when the lake is in full flood ? Analyse it, and you will find it at. best two-thirds salt aud one third fresh, proving that the bulk of tbe water is from the sea. If Mr Coop wants convincing, let him attempt to cross the beach on horseback at Tainutu when it is blowing a gale af wind, and if he wants a bath gratis he can have ono in the lake! In moderate weather Lake Ellesmere never blocks up, and when the sea gets heavy enough to block the cutting, it also throws a very large body of water into the lake, showing that Nature is ready to do its own work, with a little assistance. I think Mr Coop is talking at random when he says there is the drainage of 700 square miles of country flowing into the lake. I think if you allow at the mcst the drainage of a piece of country three times as large as the lake itself, and allow three inches of rain falls in a very heavy rain storm, this would raise the lake nine inches ; and my experience of the last eight years has taught me that heavy south-west rains are always accompanied by a gale of wind, throwing a heavy sea over at the same time, which will be confined in the basin, ready to burst with the turn of the tide, which it cannot help doing, as the dam will be six feet above the highest part of the bank at the outlet. It is altogether absurd for Mr Coop to try to contradict the evidence, which is most reliable, as no one bad any motive in telling a deliberate lie, and no one who gave evidence had any notice given them beforehand that they would be called upon. Mr Coop lays great Btress upon evaporation. No trust must be put in evaporation at all ; the flood-gates are security to those who buy the land that their land shall not get flooded. I explained to Mr G. R. Joblin that 12 floodgates would be necessary, each 10 feet in the cleir, which would represent a clear waterway of 120 feet; and allowing the lake to be at its lowest level when a heavy rain set in, there would be no more accumulation than would go out the first tide. Mr Coop tells us how he used to let out the lake when he was on the Road Board ; he also tells us how that often when he got aground with his punt ho would have been glad of even three inches rise, that he might get off again. I ask your readers if they got aground with a craft whether they would not rather float off again than discharge alt cargo and heave off again? No, no, Mr Coop ; bountiful Nature is not so lavish with her gifts. If you ever get aground again, discharge your timber like a man, and get off again J I would suggest that those interested subscribe for two photographs, one to be taken on the sea beach, looking up the bight, the other from the opppsito side, some day when a sea is coming over.

In conclusion, I beg to assure all wellwishers to the Peninsula that if the drainage works are undertaken according to my scheme they are bound to be a financial success, and will at the Jea6t supply sufficient funds to bring the railway to Little River.—Yours, etc.,

FRANCIS GREAD. Colliden, Little River, March 17.