The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1928. RACE REPAIRS.

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1928. RACE REPAIRS.

“More water at less cost” is the almost universal cry on tho irrigation areas in Central Otago. It was first encountered at Roxburgh East, tho first of these settlements visited by this paper’s representative during this present week. It was emphatic enough there, though it was almost puny compared with what was met with later on as the drier interior was penetrated. There ought to be no need for this complaint at Roxburgh. The races run through good country, the land is comparatively easily irrigable, aud the capital cost of the headwords is exceptionally low. The water is derived from the Teviot River, going to the head races after generating hydroelectric current tor the Teviot Power Board. It was the exceptionally cheap acquisition by the Government of tho plant and water rights originally designed for an ambitious mining scheme of the late Mr John Ewing that should place this scheme on velvet as compared with some others. But already the settlers are beginning to see and feel in the' progressive scale of waterrate charges a menace to their success. As more than one settler put it, his net returns from the land, after paying 8s an acre water rates, are moderately good, but next year, though by harder work and a hopedfor more adequate supply of water, he may take more off the land, his net returns are certain to be less, because his water rate will bo 16s per acre. There is in this East Roxburgh district a great difference in tho quality of the land, the contrasts between “light” and “heavy” land being so pronounced that there lias been talk of the need for differential water-rat-ing, the light land being let off at a lighter rate. This matter, however, is not being stressed meantime, those concerned being content to await the setting up of the Commission now being demanded, and the possible handing over of the administration of existing schemes to an expert body or bodies as a consequence. Tho light land, it may be explained, is that in which only a thin layer of soil overlies the gravel or shingle, and its absorptive power, particularly when first brought undei irrigation, is tremendous. Most obviously a far greater allowance than one head to 100 acres is needed for it. Representations under this head are met by officialdom with talk of one’s “quota”—a word now universally abhorred throughout the Central, as its use appears to be regarded as a satisfactory and final answer to almost every kind of complaint. This is peculiarly inequitable, since, owing to belated repairs, the settlers have been heavily handicapped by the late arrival of the water. It was not until November that it became properly available, instead of September—a dead loss of the two most vital months of the season. Moreover, when all the “quotas” did not absorb the flow, the racemau’s common-sense practice of allowing the surplus to lie used on the land was peremptorily stopped by headquarters’ command, on the ground that it was bad precedent that any water should be used without being paid for. So the surplus water was turned out of the end of the race into the Molyncux River! One can hotter perceive the. full effrontery and waste in this affair when one remembers that tho Government already owed the settlers two months’ water, and that the rates go on whether the races are full or empty.

It is, however, in the Mamiherikia system’s administration that the most extraordinary and high-handed administrative decisions are made, oblivious of the fact that most grave interruptions in the supply of water have thrown many of the irrigators on their beam-ends. First of all seepage was detected in the concrete fluming in a gorge below the intake. The iaulty •section was blown up with gelignite. For some reason not disclosed the iron fluming which was to have been substituted for the concrete was not to hand, and timber fluming was put in. By this time the Jirst couple of months of the current irrigating season had passed, with the impatient settlers waterless. The water had nob long been turned into the race before there occurred the big wash-out in the race at a spot above the road from Chatto Creek to Clyde. This was duo to overloading the race after it bad been lying dry for some time, the water being allowed to lip the top of the race. A life-and-death matter to the settlors appeared to be treated by the Public Works Department, if not as a joke, at least as not at all a matter of urgency. Though the department had a largo gang of men in the district making a road in the billy country on the other side of the Manuherikia River, leading to nowhere in particular, there was no supplementing of hands for race repairs from that source. Though the Alexandra office of the department is equipped with motor cars, there was no use made of them to transport the men engaged in dealing with the wash-out to and from their work. The consequence was that these men had to trudge long distances, the walk in some cases amounting to sixteen miles a day. Consequently there was a leisurely rate of work and cxasperatingly slow progress. It might have been thought that those irrigation farms between the intake of the race and the breach would have been supplied—extra well supplied—during the progress of repairs. But, no; the whole race was emptied and all the water wasted down the bed of the Mamiherikia River. This breach had no sooner been repaired than seepage in a section in the gorge, still nearer the intake than the first weak spot, was deemed to require more gelignite and the substitution of flaming for concrete. The further delay thus caused resulted in no effective water being available until midJanuary instead of early September. Practically the whole season has been lost to irrigators, and the result can be seen from Chatto Creek to Muttontown Gully. One hears along the line of route of the race the same story of ruined crops of all kinds, loss of labor and seed, and in some instances of stock having to bo watered by hand. One hears also many heated but very pertinent inquiries as to why repairs of such a nature as the substitution of fluming for concrete in the gorge near the intake cannot be undertaken in the off season, and why there cannot be enough foresight to ensure that the requisite material shall be on hand, instead of having to be ordered belatedly and even then somehow going astray.

It is understood that there is a permanent staff of thirteen officials at the "Public Works Department’s office at Alexandra (just increased to fifteen), and the question naturally arises why some of that number cannot find time for periodical inspection of the races, along which they are reported as seldom, if ever, seen. A practical suggestion has also been made .that the personnel might well be reduced and some stores substituted. Any properlyrun business of the kind would surely maintain stocks of such indispensable material as iron iluming and timber at Alexandra or Chatto Creek. But the result of our inquiries on the spot indicates that the department’s stocks in the district comprise merely a number of second-hand pipes, many of them worn out, stored at Chatto Creek, and that a periodical descent on that hoard for the purposes of enumerating them constitutes an onerous period in the routine of the Alexandra office.