SETTLERS SEEK RELIEF.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4998, 9 July 1926, Page 2

SETTLERS SEEK RELIEF.

LOSS SUFFERER FROM FLOODS.

RIVER SCHEME BLAMED.

Five Paproa settlers whose ■ lands are being flooded allegedly owing to the erection of stop-banks for the purposes of the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Improvement Scheme have petitioned Parliament for such relielf as will enable them to find other homes and compensation tor the loss and injury they have suffered. They say that by the creation of two ■ la.rgo flood expansion basins, which include the lands ofthemselves and five other settlers, these lands have been repeatedly flooded and the houses invaded by wa,ter. Some of the houses have been abandoned, others will shortly be, and the lands have been rendered unfit for farming - purposes. They state .that ten claims aggregating £19,741 were lodged against the. Crown and one was heard as a tost case -by a Compensation Court, 1 which held that the Crown was not legally liable. The petitioners’ costs amounted to upwards of £475. Through no Ifault or neglect of their oiyn and for the betterment of other 1 lands in the district they will fie compelled to acquire home,s in other places. Since the hearing another flood has'' covered the lands, being over three feet deep in some of the houses, a>n.d fourteen head of cattle have been. drowned. ,

The five persons referred to are Mesdames Barrett and E l . Vincent, and Messrs G. Buch'anan, W. M. Sorensen, and the estate of Mr J. Couper. Mr A. M. Samuel, M,P., has taken the petition to Parliament on behalf of those, settlers who . recently took action against the Crown for compensation -in the test case W. N. Chamberlain v. the Minister of Public Works.