A HALF-JOB IN RIVER CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1938, Page 6

A HALF-JOB IN RIVER CONTROL

For many years the need has been obvious of bringing the Hutt River, from source to sea, under one nolicv of afforestation and riparian nrotection, if not under one control. Hitherto, control has existed from the Silverstream railway bridge to the harbour;* and the riparian protection and control measures of the Hutt River Board, within that area, are. well known. But what happens seaward of the Silverstream railway bridge has been—and is—very largely dependent on what happens in the far greater but lower-priced area above (north of) the bridge, ranging from WateF Board land (partly forested, and reaching to a height of 5000 feet) down to bushline farms, and (lower still) to suburban residential areas. - The Hutt Valley north of the Silverstream railway bridge accommodates thousands of suburban dwellers and includes over seventy thousand acres of uplands where the real problem of flooding and harbour silting needs to be worked out in terms of forest cover and other measures to regulate waterflow and to- check erosion. Obviously, a river board dealing with the lower valley ©nly has little to do with the idea of handling a river problem as one whole. Such a river board is related less to natural requirements than to the available rating revenue, and the same is true of many river boards. It is now stated that a wider control system, covering the upper valley, is being planned, and that the present River Board boundary may be extended northward. The gaps in the present system, and the resulting damage and loss of land, have been staring Wellington in the face for more than a generation.