THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1922. MINISTERIAL VISIT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4407, 28 April 1922, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1922. MINISTERIAL VISIT.

The Hauraki'district has recently been favoured with visits by two Ministers of the Crown, the first being the Hon. D. H. Guthrie (Minister of Lands and Acting-Minister of Railways), and the second the Hon. J. G. Coates (Minister of Public Works), the latter having been in Paeroa and on the Plains during Tuesday evening, Wednesday, and Thursday of this : week. The needs of the district have, therefore, been adequately presented to Cabinet Ministers, and most people are of the opinion that the visits will be productive of a certain amount of good; in fact certain good results are already in evidence on the Plains in consequence of Mr. Guthrie's tour.

It is also morally certain that Mr. Coates’ trip will be productive of goo^, for he has already promised the Reference Boaid a conference with his Departmental engineers jn regard to River Impiovemeut matters, and has openly recognised the injustice of the ‘'Betterment Clause.'’ . In regard to the cost of the River Improvement Scheme, it is reassuring to note that the Reference Board (if we understood its chrirman rightly), does not intend to ask for a. re-allocation straight out, but desires to lessen the cost to the contributing bodies by : (1) Having unsold Crown lands loaded with a portion qf the cost ; (2) making an attempt to reduce the cost of the work. The first of tbese-pro-posals at anyrate should do something towards lessening the amount the present land-owners will have to pay. It is also a very equitable suggestion, inasmuch as the pioneers who are now settled on the land, and have borne the brunt of damage and loss through floods, will be assisted to carry future burdens by the new settlers taking fresh blocks and sub-divided lands.

It is questionable whether the value of dredging the river in order to give good outfalls was sufficiently stressed by all parties interested, but if the completion of local stop-banks does npt have the effect of scouring out the shoals, that con.lu»ion will be forced on the Department by the logic of events.

The replies given to the settlers on the Pereniki bend area were entirely satisfactory, as were also the answers made to the landholders on the right bank of the Ohinemuri River, whose lands would be inundated more extensively than before by the erection of the left stopbank.

As anticipated in these columns, the Department’s engineers are not willing to take the risk of putting the proposed Pereniki cut through, data secured later than that upon which the cut was first recommended having given them cause for grave doubts as to the results cf such a drastic deviation.

To use his own words, Mr. Coates decs not indulge in “frothy promises, ’’andit may be confidently anticipated that the few but very important things he has promised will duly be accomplished.