CAM RIVER PROTECTION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24906, 20 June 1946, Page 6

CAM RIVER PROTECTION

Sir,—Now that the dragline has built up the whole of the west bank of the Cam river to protect pakeha property, I wish to learn from Mr H. W. Harns and his colleagues if they intend to extend similar protection to Maori land owners living on the low lands of the east bank of the Cam, just north of tFie Kaiapoi woollen mills. When in high flood the Cam overflowed both its banks, and caused havoc to houses and crops for miles along the river; but now that only the west bank has been built up a greater volume of flood waters will be hurled over on to Maori property. It is rumoured that the flood waters are to be diverted into another river. If this is correct, it still does not explain why the west bank has been raised five feet higher than the land on the east bank north of the mill.—Yours, etc., PRINCESS HIRA POHIO. June 11, 1946. [Mr H. W. Harris, chief engineer of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, says: “The remainder of the construction and other work along the Cam river and its tributaries is included in the schedule of works proposed in the scheme for the drainage of the North Canterbury area, now under consideration by the constituent local bodies in ,the North Canterbury Catchment Board’s area.”]