DRAINAGE OPERATIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5080, 26 January 1927, Page 3

DRAINAGE OPERATIONS.

DEBARMENT'S WORK AT NGARUA, PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT. With the ultimate object of opening further land Tor settlement on the Hauraki Plains the Lands Drainage Department is having a canal constructed eastward from the Piako River at a point a short distance above, the Ngarua landing and a chain or so- below the mouth wof the Waikaka canal. At the same time a high stop-bank is being erected, and this, when completed, will form a. new northern boundary of the ponding area.

Onq o'f the department’s American steam dipper dredges is engaged on the work, and it is now operating about a mile east of the river. It will proceed to the middle ot the block and the,n turn and work southward. About a quarter of a mile from the river a dam has been installed to raise the water Hvel, so as to enable the big dredge to float, and i>- Priestman dredge is improving this quartermile of canal to enable punts, o'f coal to be taken up to the dam for transportation to the steam dipper dredge. Where the dredge is now operating there is about two 'feet of peat, and the country is# carrying a splendid crop of flax. Eventually the land on the southern side o’f the cup will be available for flax leases, and that on the. northern side for farming. Between the Ngarua. landing and the mouth of the new cut a Bucyrus drag-line dredge is constructing a stop-bank about two chains back from the river-bed and about fifteen feet high. This bank, together with the bank alongside the new cut, will form the boundary of the ponding area, replacing the existing bank alongside the canal that runs eastward 'from the river near the Ngarua landing. At the Ngarua end of this canal a blockage is now being made. A similar blockage, will be placed at the Awaiti end, and the canal basin will eventually be. utilised as a sump, from which the drainage of the Kerepeehi block and the new block (now being encircled), will be pumped into the, Awaiti canal. The metalling of the Kerepeehi block is completed, and .the materials for a bridge over the Awaiti canal near Kerepeehi have been on the site for a long time. The site of the Piako River bridge at Ngarua has not yet been settled, but the road is now being carried on to the new block. It will be situated just inside the river stop-bank.