DRAINAGE ON THE PLAINS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4720, 4 July 1924, Page 2

DRAINAGE ON THE PLAINS.

Sir, —As a settler on the Plains 1 wao interested in your report in last Friday's issue on the meeting of settlers held at Ngatea to discuss drainage matters on the Plains. To show the seriousness of the position at the present time, one settler on Orchard East Road was taking over 20001 b of milk daily, with a 4 test, when he was Hooded and had to turn his cows out on the road. At Is 6d per lb but-ter-fat that meant a. loss of over £4O a week. Another neighbour was taking 1401 b of cream daily, and also had Ip turn his cows out. taking those .two as examples, it shows that it is quite time something sensiule is done, if, when the Hauiaki Plains Drainage Board, in conjunction with the Lunds Drainage Department, spent a few hundred pounds in ‘•improving" the Te Kauri outlet, they had—as I asked at the time, and which the Drainage Board secretary informs me they are going to do now —put a good batter on the drain it would not have fallen in. Then, if the .smaller Kauri outlet had been attended to in a workmanlike manner these people would have been, able to get their water away and such serious loss would have been averted. There should certainly be a commission of inquiry appointed when things are in such a state. The Hauraki Plains Drainage Board has been in operation over seven years and has spent a good many thousand pounds, and in return has given as a most disgraceful system of fallen-in drains and useless flood-gates. And now, having spent all their money, the members admit that they are.not competent to deal with the position satisfactorily by handing over tp the Lands Drainage Department the control ot drains which the Board was specially constituted to control. In your report Mr Schultz contends that the only ones competent to judge these matters are the engineers. I would like to ask him if it is not a fact that the department’s engineer has always determinedly advocated a half to one batter on drains ; and no one can deny that has been the chief cause of drainage trouble on the Plains. Let Mr Schultz go to Orongo, where the department’s engineers have done the drainage, and 1 think he will find that every drain there needs reconstructing. The Orongo settlers have their drainage troubles all ahead of them yet. With regard tp the Hauraki Plains County Council Committee’s resolutions, one of them, "That a controlled canal be constructed from what is known as the Willow drain, south of Turua, to the Awaiti stream, immediately south of Kerepeehi," is in my opinion the most ridiculous proposition ever put forward. They pass a resolution asking the Government not to help open up drains south of Patetonga and send that water down to the lower reaches of the Piako until adequate provision has: been made for the disposal of. such water, and then they pass another resolution asking the Government to send the Awaiti flood water, also, if you please, the water from the suggested ponding area, by canal to Turua. And what provision are they going to make for' getting it into the Waihou—a matter of absolute impossibility and a most dangerous experiment. They must want that canal as a monument to their constructive ability, evidently not being satisfied with the brick one they have erected at the corner of Orchard East Road. The draining of this end of the Plains is a simple matter. Continue the Willow drain with about a twenty-foot top and narrow bottom straight back from the Waihou —no going round corners, as at present. Do the same with the Kauri outlet, which runs parallel, then do the same further south, and also further north. You will then have outlets going .straight into the river and all the drain in between emptying into these outlets Put a batter on the drains that will stand, and get the best practical experience advice possible about your flood-gates. It doesn’t matter what engineers schemes are put forward, this is the simplest and only satisfactory way this end of the Plains will ever be drained. JAS. A. BENNETT. Turua, June 30, 1924,