RIPARIAN RIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 61, 5 December 1919, Page 3

RIPARIAN RIGHTS

IN TIIE WAINUI VALLEY

EFFECT OF PROPOSED NEW DAM |For a considerable time past references havo appeared in the columns of Thf. Dominion casting doubt on the wisdom of tho City Council's proposed action in poing ahead with tho now dam for tho conservation of wator, before proceeding to tap a now soutco of supply. It is now over ten years sines the council commenced to talk of tunnelling through the- hill to secure the watere of the Orongorongo as a supplementary wator supply to that of tho Wainui stream, which has served the city so faithfully, yet beyond a flying survey of the'ground and tiie measunflff. of the flow of_ tho Orongorongo stream Xw?U above "The .Boulders") nothing has i;fon done. In his very excellent and tohaftstivo report on ways and means of proviaihf water for a vary much larger Wellington than exists to-day, tho City Engineor H. Morton) provides for both works—the dam and the tunnel—but stipulates that the former work should bo gone on with first. That is the point on which there are sharp differences of opinion. There aro msmbare of tho council, as well ts the Mayor himself, who believe that it would be prudent to secure a new source of supply at once, or, at least,'as soon as it could tw done, rather than provido ai.otliQr tank for, the diminishing waters of the Wainui stream.' 1 When recently asked about the time the relativo works would take Mr. Luke said that tho Acting-City Engineer had reported that the tunnel would take as long to pierce as the dam would take to build, yet the former was only pstimatqd to cost ,660,000 as against .£120,000 for the dam. The difficulty of aocess would probably account for the piorcing of the tunnel taking as long as tho construction of a dam. Even that misses the 'chief 'point, Whioh concerns a new source of supply, as against further conservation from the existing source. What is riot generally known by the public is that the site of the proposed new dam is well below (not above) the existing 'basins. Tho point at which a gang of men are now engaged testing for foundations is round tho bend of tho road from Mr. Wakeman's property, at a point where a saddle from the opposite ridge runs down pretty well to tuo bed of the river. It is pretty, clear that a basin'that is to hold 800,000,000 gal-lons-of water is going to cover a good deal of country, and the filling of -the onclosed ■ area is likely, to be a very heavy drain on the waters of the Wainui stream,, which even now cannot keep. the existing basinc • . anything like filled at tha summer-ends. That beiug tie case—the }>osition in March, 1917 and 1918, ivas parlous—how can it be expected that there Will be ■ sufficient to keep a hew 800,000,000 basin filled? The wintor overflow is, naturally, expected to provide • much of the water, but will wafer conserved for four or five months be as. palatable as fresh water, and, further, only experience will teaoh how far it will bo possible to conserve the wintor water for summer use— how much will have to be allowed for soakage over the new area of ground to be used, and what toil a long dry -summer would take by way of evaporation. Now, another complication arises. Fpr some time past the residents of the Wainui Yallej have been very uneasy as to the effect the new dam will have •on their properties. At presont there are a number of small dairy farms, the lands of which slope down to the stream, and which are to a very great extent made valuable by reason of the existence of tho stream, The residents are uneasy, because they believe that if the new dam is to be built, there will be little or no stream for at least sax months of the year—and those . six months form the luriixl when i he'stream is most needed. Thev are taking up the attitude that they have certain riparian rights—on which fhe value of nearly the . whole of the farms is contingent. . It' the stream fa allowed to dry up for half tiie 1 your, values must at once drop. Some of the residents have already taken steiw to'gather data as to the extent the new catchment area, is to cheek the llow .of the stream, and it is understood that a test case will be stated to restrain the city corporation from proivaclinsr with the work, when there is an alternative menus ot augmenting the suprilv, by provioiug a new source altogether.

Wnijiui residents thnt already ihe effect of a dry year is apparent in uie flow of the stream. In many'parts one can walk across the bed of the stream without setting wet above tho ankles. and Catchpole'B Creek, which pt this time of the year in usually a gusher, wis bono dry on Sunday Inst. Indeed, the Wainui stream has not hoen so low in December as it is now for many Tears. In such circumstances the nwr source of supply appears to be the most urgent n!Md, and one doservhij! of immediate attention bv the cily authorities.

THE MAYOR CONSULTED. The above matter was mentioned to tlia Mayor yesterday, .who. said that he knew something of _ the "matter. No opposition of any kind would prevent tho dam bnins built il' they could get a solid root foundation for it, for the first consideration must be a proper water supply to the city and district. He was not prfDared to . admit that there were any rioarian rights. In any case, he did not think that the farms down the valley were irrigated to any extent by the main stream as the farm lands were ter- . raced well above the stream. The needs of the people down the valley could be suDDliea by runninpr a main down, which would eive them all the water required for household or farm . purposes. He pointed out that as it was thero was no water running over from the reservoirs at. Wninui for a certain time each year, so he did not 6ee how anyone's rights would be violated by erecting another dam. s