SWAMP DRAINAGE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 154, 25 March 1920, Page 6

SWAMP DRAINAGE

:« GOVERNMENT. OPERATIONS

MORE MACHINERY NEEDED

Tho reclamation of swamp lands by extensive. drainage operations has been one of the most successful ventures ever undertaken by tho Government of this count)?. Already many square miles of tho most valuable, laud in- the Dominion have been saved from wilderness and converted into rjc-li pasture. I/and in the Ilauraki Plains district is readily fialeablo at upwards of .£IOO per acre. The work on this swamp '.a not yot completed, mid thioe is still much more land to bo

<vnn for sottlement.

in recent years tho work'lias be omewhat. hampered for lack of in. hinory. For the cutting of the may. irainß special dredges are used. Si: •pars ago two dredges were ordered, am bey have remained on order during th vholc- period of the war. In Hie mean ;ime, the existing plant, insufficient a t is,- has deteriorated from wear, am Shore :s the utmost need for-new ma :4:incT.v, especially in view of the fac that the Government is more or les rommitted to new drainage undertakingin parts of the country not yet touched There is a big swamp of 60,000 acres ii the Southland district, known ns Senwarc MoSP, which is said to be- capable- o: draining, and an engineer of the Department is at present on the spot making preliminary surveys. There is an other engineer on the West Coast investigating, several projects there. In addition, it is probable that if i't all pos ; siblc work on the swamps already tappet will be pushed ahead. Mr. Thomson is at present on the \Vesl Coast looking at some discarded gold dredge.?-to see whether it will lie possible to use thorn for drainage operat'ons. These have been already once previously reported upon, and tho decision then was that they were unsuitable. Mr. Thomson has again reported that he can make no use of them. The ntwl of the Department is fo* a dredge which will cut a narrow channel, but the gold dretlge has to cut a very .wide channel to float its .pontoons. Mr. Thomson is sltortlv to go to America with n commission to buy macliincryif such is procurable. Ho 'will buy not only dret.ges, but also Hew maclrnery for the breaking in- of newly drained lands, and also rond-making machinery, for it is tho work of tho Department to make road? In the arena drained) using the spoil taken from the drains Ho form Toads.