Drainage of Swamp Land

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1922, Page 1

Drainage of Swamp Land

SI'COESSFU l> OI’EIIATIONS

WELLINGTON. April 20

The Hon. I). H. Guthrie, Minister of j.omls, who has just returned to Wellington from an inspection oi the swamp drainage works in the North, states that up to the present the Government has drained upwards of 300,000 acres of swamp. This area is composed of smile of the richest land in the Dominion, hut up to the time of the drainage operations it was lying waste and for the most part was covered with water. Since the drainage work began, this waste area has been brought into use, and made exceedingly productive. Oho principal drainage areas are the Haural;i plains. Ilangitihei plains, A\ ailii swamp and Tikurangi swamp. The lastnamed comprises 23.00!) acres. The Prime Minister and Air Guthrie attended early in the present month the cere, mony of turning the first sod in connexion with Ibis drainage scheme. The Government have imported 18 new dredges from America for swamp drainage purposes, and they arc all now at weiK. As work at present in hand is completed the dredges will he transferred to oilier districts. There are ov(*r 100.000 acres in two large swamps in Southland—one ol 60,000 acres, the Seaward Moss, and the other of some 40,000 acres, the I’oukawa swamps whose turn will come when the larger' areas are drained. ]