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Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18893, 7 January 1927, Page 11

TO TBI IDITO* Of TBI TKISS-

Sir, —On April 13th last there was a | letter in The Press signed by several gentlemen, amongst them Mr Geo. Gould, in which occurred the following: I "... It cannot be too strongly iin- ! pressed on the ratepayers that we are : l>oing asked to commit ourselves to this j huge expenditure in a panic, and that I there is not sufficient ground for'this j panic. What is the alternative? It is ! this. Turn down the loan. Erect the j *topbaiiks. Postpone a decision on j the scheme and get the best expert in I the world to report. ]f the scheme is j approved by such an expert: then we j may proceed with confidence. If it is I rejected or largely modified we may be i saved considerable time and a tragical • waste of money." I am very much interested to see ; ili.it Mr Gon'd now approves of No. 2 j out. that is the proposed Trust scheme. ! and that he now considers the Trust I-; niakiritr provision for unnecessary ! width. He says: "Tho new cut should : be narrow, deep, and swift, not wide ! and meandering." I understand that ' Mr Gould has been in England since 1 he sitrned the above letter, and 1 would . therefore Ik? glad if he would tell us j what river (perhaps the Thames) in- , flueiiced hini in his latest amazing 1 theory. In your issue of December ; 1 Stli. one farmer was reported as say- ■ ing. and very aptly, too, I think, that | rhirme the recent big flood ''it was like , a half-inch pipe into which water | was. pouring from a six-inch pipe" i Mr Gould is seeking to reduce this . half-inch pipe. rer>res*>ntiiig the throtj tlin2 theorv of the Trust, to one of ! microscopical dimensions, and I sinj ,-erely hope for his own sake (owning : a* he doe< land on f'outts Is'and ad~ i joinins this nietaplmrie.fl p i llol t h at ] lis

"narrow, deep, and swift'- out never i eventuates. It fan never lie anv of , these three simply because there is no | crrade. and because the narrower the , cut the oniekcr the shinale will a<™re- ! - at ?- 1 ] * ""rmwer the rut uTder ; surli conditions as we find there the -renter the ponding up a nd the spill- ; .i.!; over m time of flood to devastation j of nronerty Tln« was amply shown in the ro-ent big fl orK l. w]len t])(? flomU inp- of the lower lands was obviously caused by .the boa-constrictor tactics ot the Trust. IWt we all wish that this wilfully! obstinate 6-iwh pipe of ours should be I

I ''narrow, deep, and swift.'' as in the | rock-lined gorge, secure for thousands lof years? In fact, aren't we all : j I Yours, etc.. H. .M. CHUYSTALL. January 6ih. ! io TBI tr>iTO» or thi raissSir.—There are other means of control besides those investigated by Mr Furkert. and if they were given a failtrial I'believe that they would prcve more effective and less, costly than the present groyne method. The -VB.O. of protection is found in face work, everv square foot of protection should be sloping scale-wise, and not anti-scale-wise, not upright as their present method is. If sloped sufficient.y and of supple material such a plan allows the water to run up or bo forced up, onlv to trv and run hack -(gravity) on to the oncoming water (water cushion protection). Mr Furkert's- report is one-sided; ho is trying to prove his method or scheme of control in the face- of what might, be better ideas. Ono method that he did not fully investigate is longitudinal control, which. I believe, is by far the cheapest means of control. liy all means do upstream work for ponding water, but it should be behind protection and only for overflow water or flood water (for the purpose of collecting silt). Coutts Island cut is the direct cause of the filling up of the river bed on either side of the Empire Bridge (due to the increased acceleration of tho waters bringing deposit, down), and to take this local spot as a true indication as to how fast thel>ed is filling up is unnatural and false. Tn Mr Furkert's latest report T notice how wisely he has changed his ideas about, straightening where the river contains any quantity cf gravel or appreciable fall. He says that he questioned the Italian engineers as to the advisability of cutting off bends, and while they said that this was a perfectly correct procedure where the fall was low fss had been done in.the Reno . below Poggio Renatice). they were ' strongly opposed to it where there was any decided fall in the river. They 'i gave instances A-hcre it had 'ncer; done in the past with most disastrous ie- j suits. As ono man put it. the ri'-ers ] are bard enough to control with their ' natural slope, and their slope gives them their greatest power for destruc- 1 tion; so why increase their slope. 2 Yours, etc., '

f. n. DIXON. West Eyrcton, Jan. 6th, 1927.