NORTH CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18895, 10 January 1927, Page 4

NORTH CANTERBURY.

RANGIORA. The Rev. W. E. Hutcheson and the Bev. J. F. Feron left last week for their annual vacation. Mr and Mrs G. Gibbs Jordan leave today for Akaroa, where they will spend a fortnight. Mr and Mrs A. E. Golding leave todav for Warrington, Otago. Mr and MrsC . H. Hargraves have gone to Auckland. Amongst the most favoured R seaside camping spots this season has been Goose Bay, in Kaikoura, quite a number of local residents having spent their holidays there. Amongst those who have returned are Mr and Mrs C. S. Ayers and family. Mr and Mrs W. E. Horrell and family left on Saturday for Goose Bay. The improved conditions at the Wai-' kuku beach have made this beautiful seaside pleasure resort more popular than ever. The weather is still very changeable and unsettled, and campers and picnickers have not had as enjoyable a time as they had expected. During the week the weather was dull and cold, with occasional showers of rain. Saturday was, however, an exception, although there was a change in the evening, and from seven o 'clock rain fell, which continued during the night and yesterday morning. It cleared up during the afternoon. Mr and Mrs W 4 E. Barton are leaving early in February on an extended trip to England. OXFORD. The annual meeting of the Oxford "Y" Branch was held last Friday evening in the Coronation Hall. The election of officers for 1927 resulted:— President, Mr H. Cederman; vice-presi-dent, Mr W. Dalley; secretary, Miss M. Roi; treasurer, Miss E. Fantham. Votes of thanks were accorded to the out-going officers, and also to Mrs Comyns for her assistance at the View Hill School jubilee banquet. Following this a social evening was helJ. CUST. The rainfall at Cust during December amounted to 403 points, making a total of 27.51 inches for the year. The average rainfall for the district for the past 16 years is 28.352 inches, 1911 beiixr tho highest with 39.175 inches, and 1915 the lowest with 17.30 inches The St. James' Anglican Church held 1 a parish picnic on New Year's Day in the grounds of Mr Nankivell, Oust. The outing was greatly enjoyed. Children's sports occupied part of the afternoon. The picnic was organised : by the.Ladies' Guild, with Miss F. M. I Cooper as secretary.

OKAIN'S BAY. 'Owing to the frequent rains and dull days, the cocksfoot harvest will not commence as early as usual, but, given a few hot days, the crop will ripon quickly. The area saved for seed is, if anything, less than last year. Though the crops can be regarded as only fair, the seed promises, to be of good' quality. Staying with; Mrs J. R. Thacker are Miss G. Morgan (Methven); Miss E, Richards (Rakaia), Miss M. Lemon (Christchurch), Miss C. Sharman and Miss M. Sharman (Christchurch), Miss D. Cambridge (Ashburton), and Mr M. Edgar (Wellington). Mrs dhoate has returned to town from a visit to Mrs J. Harris. The annual returns of the Loyal Hand of Friendship Lodge show an increase of £6O 10s in the fund, which is now £1669 14s. Sick pay during the year amounted to £65 4s 2d, a decrease of. £57 18s 4d. The sum of £42 was paid in maternity bonus. ■ • AKAROA. There was a large attendance at the Duvauchelle sale on Friday. A total entry of 268 head of cattle was yarded and two small lines of store wethers came forward. Most of the stock was in good condition and the bidding was brisk. The range of prices was: Fat steers from £8 7s 6d to £l2 12s 6d; fat heifers from £7 5s to £9 12s 6d, and cows from £4 7s 6d to £lO os. Store cows sold well' at from £2 2s 6d to £5 10s. Springers averaged about £7 ss. Mostly 18 months' store cattle were yarded, prices being from £3 3s.to £4 13s. Bulls'brought from 20s to £3 ss, and store wethers from 26s 3d to 27s 3d. The steam yacht Surprise arrived in the harbour on Friday afternoon from Lyttelton and was very much admired by visitors and townspeople alike. It is understood that she is to remain here for some weeks. LEESTON. •Mr L. C. Vicary, general manager to. the Springs-Ellesmere Electric Power' Board, who went to the West Coast for the holidays, returned to Leeston on Wednesday. The Rev. W. Uphill and Mrs Uphill and family, of Leeston, are paying a visit to Oxford Mr C. 0. Mahon, who has been in business in Christchurch as a grain broker for some time, is to Mr R. G. Power as manager of the Leeston branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association. Mr Alex. Webster, engineer to the Ellesmere County Council, who spent the holidays in the North Island, returned to Leeston on Wednesday.

ASHLEY RIVER TRUST.

ADDRESS BY MR T. WYLLIE. On Saturday evening Mr T. Wyllie, one of the Kowai Subdivision candidates in the Ashley River Trust election, addressed a meeting of ratepayers in the Ashley Schoolroom, presided over by Mr P. J. Lindsav, chairman of the School Committee. The chairman, in introducing Mr Wyllie, aaid that at the last election, in which he was a candidate, he had been placed at a disadvantage through erroneous reports having been circulated concerning him. He had now come before the ratepayers to explain his ideas in regard to the work proposed to be done to prevent the overflow of the river.

In order to prove that he did know something of river protective works, Mr Wyllie read extracts''from the report of the Rivers Commission of 1921, before which he gave evidence as chairman of the Sefton-Ashley Drainage Board, showing that the Commissioners formed a high opinion of the value of the river conservation work carried out by the Board under his supervision; and recommended that it should extend its operations under a name changed to the Ashley River and Drainage Board. These works, Mr Wyllie continued, had stood the test for practically 30 years, keeping the river within bounds, and protecting the farni3 in the Board's district from floods. From the experience he had gained in river conservation he was thoroughly convinced that effective work could not' be. done unless the river was controlled on both sides. He did not think the present members of the Trust had done as much as they might have done during the time they had been in office, and what little then; was to their credit had not been carried out as economically as it might have been. They had been about ten months in office, and had done nothing to protect the district from flood damage. One of the members had told him that they had committed the district to an expenditure of £I2OO with little of value done. There had been an aerial and a motor-car survey of the river, but in his opinion neither of the surveys was altogether satisfactory, a much closer inspection being necessary. He had inspected all the protective works being carried out- in the rivers, and he certainly did not like the Toyneg put in by the Wairnakariri River Trust. In his opinion the. work required to be done in the Ashley was first to go along the river and pick out the worst places, and there to put in groynes of willows all tho way down on the south bank. Then, after the first flood, the groynes could be lengthened until in time there would be one continuous screen of willows from one end of the portion of the river requiring control to the other. In order to expedite the work as much as possible he would divide the river into three lengths, one from the Gorge bridge to the traffic bridge, the next from the railway bridge to the lower traffic bridge on the North road, and the third from the bridge to tho eea. He had omitted the length between the concrete traffic bridge and railway bridges. To deal successfully with that part would require work of a different nature from any that had ever been done in the Ashley river hitherto. Ho would recommend for this section of the river groyne work similar to that he did for the Waimakariri-Ashley Water Supply Board at Brown's Rock. In all the work that had to be -done the chief object in view should be to get a straight channel to the sea, and in that connexion he differed from Mr Hay, tho Trust's engineer, whose plan showed several curves, and tho channel not straight where it might be. Mr Hay in his report referred to two types of groynes, solid and permeable, and he expressed peculiar ideas in regard to their position and the nature of their construction. According to his plan, they were to be placed at an angle of 33 degrees upstream. His (Mr Wyllie's) plan would be to placo them straight across the stream, as, on account of the free nature of the ground, it wa 3 not advisable to put too much pressure on the natural banks, or they would have the river cutting in behind the work and leaving it out in the middle of the stream, a menace to the safety of the district until removed. The solid groyne described in the report had been discarded by practical engineers years ago. In his report Mr Hay did not guarantee that the ratepayers would be free from the danger of flood damage if hi 3 plans were carried out, at the estimated expenditure of £14,000, excluding the coat of a new traffic bridge on the North road. The works recommended, he said, would meet the requirements of flood control for a considerable period, and at eome future date it would be necessary to raise the stop-bapks, but it would not be justifiable from an economio point of view to build the stop-bank 3up to the stability grade at the present time. He (Mr Wyllie), from his experience of the action of the river on stop-banks, considered this proposal to be absurd. If the water got over the bank it would very quick y be demolished, and consequently it would be necessary to make up the stop-banks to their full height ei the outset. With regard to the width of the channel, Mr Hay started off with a stream width of 1000 ft a mile up from the sea. This, in his opinion, was altogether too wide. He (Mr Wyllie) believed in keeping the river closed in, and it would then scour out its bed and thus improve the waterway. Regarding the lower traffio bridge, Mr Hay reported that it must be lengthened by 800 ft. This, in his opinion, was All that was required to be *done waa to remove every other set of piles, and build a new upper structure about six feet higher than it was at present. Then, by erecting a stop-bank on the south side the same a s erected by the Sefton-Ashley Drainage Board on the north bank, tho river would be held in its channel and scour it out, affording ample waterway. Mr Hay did not propose to do any works at the mouth of the nyer, as he considered it would not go south. This was wrong, as to his knowledge the river had gone south in the direction of Kaiapoi more or less during the time he had known it, and it would always do so unless held in check. Mr Wyllie went on to state that when the Ashley River Improvement Bill was being prepared he unsuccessfully endeavoured to have a clause inserted providing that the district under the control of the Trust should be divided into wards oi ridings. In reference to the question of finance Mr Wyllie expressed his conviction that £SOOO could be saved by reducing the proposed width of the top of the etop-banks from 6ft to 4ft, the latter having proved ample for the banks erected by the Drainage Board on the north bank, and by another £SOOO proposed to be spent on the purchase of land to widen the channel in the vicinity of the lower traffic bridge, Biich work being, in his opinion, quite unnecessary, except at one small point. He thought that further substantial savings could be made by giving careful consideration to the plans of the work necessary to be carried After Mr Wyllie. had replied to a number of questions, the chairman moved a vote of thanks to him. The motion was seconded by Mr R. Colley and was carried.