SERIOUS EROSION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 20, 31 October 1944, Page 5

SERIOUS EROSION

PROBLEM IN THE COUNTY

STANDS ADJOINING WHAKATANE

RIVER

In answer to the Whakatane County Council's letter urging that preventative steps taken in the near future to check the erosion which was taking place on the Whakatane River the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Board has notified that it was awaiting the complete survey of the river from Ruatoki ito the sea.

Mention was made of the very .Serious loss of land on Sykcs property wAsch adjoined the the . chaVrnan, Mr J, L. Burnetpromising to make a point of seeing the 4P.W.D. engineer on this matter when in Wellington, Cr McGready said that it was a crying shame the way in which this erosion has been neglected jYear after year inspectors had visited the spot but nothing had been clone. It was hard to estimate the " loss to the ratepayers Avho were paying rates on land they did not. possess. At least 25 acres, of fertile iland had been washed away since he had been in the district. The country could find £40,000,000 for war purposes but could not find forty pence to keep the good land of New Zealand where it ought to be. Cr McGougan agreed that firstclass land was being lost, and there was a chance of the river actually •breaking through in one place. The Control Council had been on tiu Job for six months yet there did not appear to have been anything done to protect such lands. It would almost. appear that it had merely inspected the land and then gone away and forgotten about it. Cr Cawte: The trouble is that the same thing is going on in most parts of - New Zealand The chairman was asked to take the matter up with the authorities concerned when in Wellington.