The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1923. IRRIGATION COMMISSION IMPERATIVE.

Evening Star, Issue 19785, 8 February 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1923. IRRIGATION COMMISSION IMPERATIVE.

Any statement by the Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department bearing on so vital a, matter as irrigation in Centra! Otago should command respect. Hut the interview which Mr Furkert gave to our Wellington correspondent this week places us in a very awkward dilemma in regard to the attitude which ought to be observed by the reputable Dress towards a highly placed officer of the Crown. Mr Furkert says: “We have always had the amount of water reckoned uiioii and a shade more. Even in spitoi of a dry period, wo have had all the supply we thought we would have.” IT that is so, how is it that the Government has not supplied so many of tho settlers with the water which it contracted to supply them? If Mr Furkcrt’s statement is correct tho Government deliberately undertook to supply settlers with water which it had not got, and knew it had not got and could not get. Such a callous course of conduct we hesitate to attribute to the Government. It involves the risk of the gravely misled settlers being broken on the wheel through misplaced reliance on an agreement to which the Government was one, party and to which it had set its signature on paper. Unfortunately that risk threatens imminently to become a fact. Some of the settlers see no prospect before them but that of walking off and losing all; others with more capital are hanging on in the meantime, hoping that they will get tlje promised water before their resources are eaten

Moreover, if the Government has now, and lias always had, the amount of water reckoned on, why is it that it has had recourse, where possible, to supplies begged from the owners ot private water rights? In the Tarras district, supplies for which are drawn exclusively from the Lind is River, the Government comes third in the list of priority of right to tiro water. At present the Hindis bed, below the intakes for thij races, is bone-dry, and has been since early in January at least; all the ilow of the river is diverted into the races. The flow in the Government race is ludicrously insufiieient to provide what the Government has contracted to supply. Some of the settlers had had no water whatever for months, others had had but a fraction of what they had contracted for. To alleviate the position a large-hearted landowner, whose right to twelve heads from the Hindis ranks immediately prior to that of the Government, is contenting himself with seven heads for irrigating his own land in tills exceptionally dry season, and is allowing tho other five heads to go into the Government race. But, even with this gratuitous augmentation, the Government race is not carrying nearly enough water for the barest requirements of tho Government’s customers.

There is one paragraph in the text of the petition (published by us yesterday) being issued for signature by residents of Central Otago other than settlers on irrigation areas* which may be seized on as a means by which the Government may seek to extricate itself from the dilemma of having undertaken to supply more water than it has at its command. This paragraph roads: “Wo further point out that until this barren land lias been properly grassed the amount ol water required per aero is considerably more than the amount supplied by the department, whose estimate of the amount required per 100 acres has been proved totally 1 inadequate." The land on to which settlers under the Government irrigation system originally go has all the appearance of a desert, its most prominent vegetation being scab-weed, ft looks most unpromising material, but the settlers know that, with the proper application of water, it will soon resemble the paddocks of their _ neighbors, knee-deep in clover, or waist-high in lucerne, for those paddocks, too, were once arid, scab-weed covered stretches. At first the barren land sucks

up a great amount of water, but, once the pasture or fodder plant is well established, the water requirements become far less than in the initial season or two. We understand that the Government scale is one head of water to 150 acres. A fixed scale- is an absurdity, for the reason mentioned. But there are settlers who would be glad to get an initial supply of one head to 150 acres rather than no water whatever, as bar been the case, since even a little water would enable them to begin the transformation of the land from its present desert state. The heavy initial expenditure on seed would not then mean money thrown away. It seems that the Government has made two serious miscalculations —first as to the amount of water required, and second as to the amount of water available. The cumulative effect of these is disastrous, and has provoked the present deep-rooted agitation for an inquiry. Reading between the lines of Mr Furkert’s interview, one easily discerns deprecation of the idea of a Royal Commission of inquiry. The text of the settlers’ petition has for some little time been in bis possession, for those nfoving in the matter paid him the courtesy of informing him in advance of their resolved course of action. Thus ho is not taken by surprise. But he declares himself “not in a position to say whether the Government would take action, that being a matter for tho Minister of Works.” The present Minister of Works is relatively inexperienced, and is presumably guided by the advice of his responsible permanent departmental officials. Should their advice be against a commission of inquiry wo hope, for Mr Williams’s own sake and for the sake of the Government, that he will not accept it. An inquiry is imperative. There is one portion of Mr Furkert’s interview on which we have not touched. It concerns tho location, construction, and supervision of the water races. The Engineer-in-Chief skims over this most vital subject with a somewhat irrelevant facility. It cannot be disposed of in this way. Statements in tliis connection have been placed at our disposal which, iu our opinion, should only bo elicited on oath before a Royal Commission, and not until then. The letter from Nascby concerning the present operations on the Mount Ida race received by tho Otago Expansion League and published by us yesterday is one indication of tho attitude of tho observer on the spot towards the activities of the Public Works Department iu tbo matter of irrigation in Central Otago. If that attitude is based on misapprehension it is the bounden duty of the department to remove tho misapprehension. The feeling, however, is so widespread and deep-seated that no means or method short of a Royal Commission of acceptably neutral and competent personnel will servo the purpose.