A Dangerous Water Scheme

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 388, 12 April 1902, Page 3

A Dangerous Water Scheme

(To the .Editor of the Times.) Sir, —I should like to draw the attention of the ratepayers of Gisborne to the practical illustration or warning that was given us only last Sunday by the uownpour of rain which occurred in a certain portion only of the Waimata district, and was sufficient to occasion a wall of seething .water some five or six feet in height to come rushing down the .Waimata river. Does not this give us more than' mere words of warning as to the very, grave danger of erecting the proposed dam at the Waihirere watersned? Need I ask what the effect might have been if that downpour, or waterspout ,(as it has been aptly termed by the local press), had fallen on the Waihirere watershed with our proposed 40 foot dam erected there V Can the strongest supporters of that scheme shut their eyes to the danger of such a dam breaking away under such circumstances ? Can they, shut their eyes to the great loss to both life and property that would result if such an event should happen, and are they still prepared to take the responsibility, of that risk upon their shoulders, and so force it upon the shoulders, of •the other ratepayers of the Borough of Gisborne, for assuredly if such an event happened the Borough of Gisborne would lie liable in damages re. coverable in a Court of Law for every pound sterling of damage that would be occasioned by the bursting of the dam. Further, the ratepayers might also consider whose lives and property Would be most in danger by the bursting of the dam, for it must be remembered that the Tarulieru river is the natural outlet of the Waihirere water. 11 the dam should break away would not one of two .things happen ? Either the water would follow its natural course down the Tarulieru •River—not merely a five or six foot wall of water carrying a buggy and pair away, but a very much higher wall of water carrying houses and human beings before it (including perhaps some of the very townsjeople who were favourable to the water scheme, or were it not to follow the Tarulieru would it not rush right across the Makauri and the Waerenga-a-hika flats into the Big River. There ■is no doubt that the strong supporters of Waihirere will belittle and ridicule what I say, but the fact remains that we in this district are subject to these phenomenal downpours of rain, one of which occurred three years ago, when the Pouawa bridge was washed out to sea. The damage was practically confined to a very small area near the coast, extending from this side of Whangara to the fringe of the Kaiti Block, the whole damage on that occasion being done between nine o'clock at night and five in the mor jiing In that short space of time Cooper’s Creek on the Waimn beach rose 20 feet. The downpour before that occurred in 1894 when a big slip on the Waimata road at the back of Mr C. Gray’s property . occurred Doubtless it will also be chumcd that Mr Mestayer will have consideied and provided against such contingencies, that the watershed is too small for such a downpour to seriously afiect sBS&s-S ths, se Y: r “ f \ h world. One of these ocmirred in America only a few months wk when there were thousands ot ,d t' ,„' t No doubt able engineers had constructed these dams believing • hat tlev would not break away. Apart from all other questions as to the prudence of adopting tt.uhireie should we not before it is too late - „ m i consider some other scheme ' with less danger and doubt attached o it ■' 1 consider the dangers of [supreme Court to warrant it m absolutely prohibiting the erection o! a dan/ 1 trust that this course will not te forced upon those who may consider their lives and property nu c that the scheme may yet cons d d by the Borough upon its true meric We as a community are young and financially 1 weak, and I believe we would all be united for a coninmn good without a common danger J*! f< S. nately there is a common danger lurk mg '/round this Waihirere scheme whichever way you look at it. i and believe that we are m no post mil to warrant us as a community taking 'the 'risk of that danger and f shall m t9Wn DOTGLAS LYSNAR,