FLOODED AREAS IN THE MANAWATU

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 46, 18 November 1920, Page 5

FLOODED AREAS IN THE MANAWATU

PROPOSED PREVENTIVE MEASURES. (Prom Our. Special .Correspondent!) Palmerston North, November 17. A meeting of property-owners' find'o6oupiers of land in the low-iyin? districts in the vicinity of tho llakcrua and Moutoa districts,, whioh in tho v past have ibeen subject to floods through the over:flow of tho Manawatu and Oromi Rivers, wa6 held at Palmers Urn North, when ithoro wa6 a large attendance o£ .those interested. '• •'

Mr. R. T. Bell, who presided, .'mentioned that nothing had come of ~a .meeting held sojno months previously, but •now that: they had had a- snarp reminder of the danger to which tliey were ,ex-. pose*}, by the recent floods, he was 6uro that they would quito agree that it was timo that soino body should be formed with a view to confining tho rivers within their banks. Ho referred to proposals which, had been made in tho pa«t. to provent flooding; A Government commission which had been set up as far back 'as- 1908 had reported upon four pos, Bible schemes, but so far nothing had been done. Private owners were con. etructing banks along the two- rivers in order to protect their owa properties, but even this was only going to giv® them partial relief! These owners, although working privately, were by. lio means unfriendly to those on the other side of the river, and were quito prepared to ioin .in any general scheme which would bo for tho relief of the district generally. Theso owners had been forced to proceed with the work 60 as to oonvort largo areas of la.nd intp pastoral areas. For one reason somo disease had badly affected tho flax, which made the milling of these areas a non-\ payable proposition, while another reason' was tho fact that if tho floods were allowed to cover these lands they would soon be overrun by "goats' rue," which, if it onco- got a hold, was most difficult to eradicate. In that case, what should be a large area of excellent pastoral land would bo.ruined. A resolution,had been' passed at. a previous mooting urging, ;the formation, of a nyec , Board but although somo owners had subscribed towards the initial expenses, and others had promised, it was impossible to proceed owing to insufficient funds to defray, the preliminary cxponsos. Many of tho settlers concornod had been most lukewarm over the matter, ftnd this was not 'surprising seeing that thoy-had had no floods to speak of for some time, but now that they had had a very sharp reminder in conncction with the recnt inundation from which somo areas' would take months to recovor, he hoped that something tangible would bo done. .; After some considerable discussion, in which suggestions made 'to get Government assistance wore deprecated, tho chairman pointed out that the primary objoct in now was to form a nver board. 'J'hey wore not bound to adopt any of the schemes recommended in the past, what wns next wanted wns a report from absolutely the best, enginoer availablo as to Hie most suilablo schcmo to adopt to deal with the Manawatu and Oroua Rivers. The land which it would be necessary to make use of under tho soheino could be acquired under the Public Works j£ot. Eventually the following motion was carri^Ton the suggestion of llr. A. J. Galliohan"That this meeting of pro-perty-holders pledges itself to a. contribution of threepence per acre, and those present pledge tlibinselves to endeavour tj collect that amount from their neighbours, to. provido funds for thh prolimmary expenses in connection with the- lormation of a rivor board." ■ Tho following wore appointed a committeo to carry out tho proposal :—Moutoa riding, Messrs. TV. Carter nnd W. Smith; Tnonui, Messrs. iV P. Ncilscn and A. J. Gallichnn; Makorua. Messrs. H. Akors and R. T Boll; Buckley and Koputaroa, "M(Wsre. A. J1 lJonnlrt and J. Richardson; Manawatu County (bolow junction of two rivers), Mosara. jsal<twill and W. Barber. It wns decided that tho representatives of each district should report to a general meoting of property-owners, to bo held a montn hvneo, as to what progress had been made. •