HARPER DIVERSION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17124, 20 April 1921, Page 6

HARPER DIVERSION.

DRAINAGE BOAED'S SUPPORT.

The Christchurch Drainage Board last night received a letter from the Canterbury Progress League asking for the Board's support irfthe agitation for permanent diversion works at the Harper river to assist the water level at Lake Coleridge. •Mr H. Langford said the League merited the Board's strongest support in.the action it was taking. He moved that the Board give its support to tho movement. .„ The motion was seconded by. Mi w • J. Walter. , , .;. „.„,, l Air H. Holland said the position was becoming acute, for there was -ess than three feet of water above the tunnel entrance, and that at a time when the lake was reaching its lowest level. Should anything happen to tho isupply, the position would be most 'serious, for the industries of the city and district depended on the continuance of the supply. ' ~ I The chairman (Mr Walter Hill) said the position was serious from a drainage point of view. Tho Board had strapped its steam plant, and now relied entirely on the electric motors for pumping. Should tho Lake Coleridge supply fail the operation of*the sewage system would be dislocated, and the results would be disastrous. Mr F. Burgoyne held-that tho Lake Coleridge business was being used as a vote-catching device,, and the Board should urge the Government to drop that attitude altogether and to get down to business. Mr H. Holland urged that the Progress League wanted all the backing it could get from local bodies to show the Government that all the local bodies were behind the agitation. The Board decided to support the League in its action, and to bring under the notice of the Government the difficulties that would be caused in carrying on drainage operations in the city should the Lake Coleridge suppty fail-

The Riccarton Borough Council decided at its meeting last night to support tho Canterbury Progress League in protesting against the action of the Government in holding up the construction of the permanent Harper diversion works at Lake Coleridge. Cr. A. E. Steere, in moving that the Council should nive the League its support, said that he would back the League up in any move they would take in the direction indicated. In seconding the motion, Cr. H. W. Wise, said that he knew of no other body that could do better than the League in getting tho Government to proceed with the permanent work at the earliest possiblo date. . i