WAIHOU RIVER SCHEME.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5403, 22 March 1929, Page 3

WAIHOU RIVER SCHEME.

EFFECT ON DRAINAGE.

COMPLAINTS TO MINISTER.

Some, of the detrimental effects of the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Improvement Scheme on the of the Hauraki United. Drainage Board and on the drainage of the land under its control were dealt with by representatives of the board when the Hon. E. A. Ransoto., Minister fof Public Works, wa& met at the Pekapeka Road comer on- Wednesday morninc. It was explained that the boaid fully realised! and appreciated the importance of the river improvement works a,nd its, necessity and did n<*t complain- in any way except as to how the previous drains age works were affected. In many ’ cases the board’s works had beennullified and expensive remodelling was necessary, but for this? the board had no funds available, and could not rate as the land was already rated as Msl. as allowed. The drams had be«|a paid to' wof loan mow» on which special rates were stiU being paid, and had satisfactorily filled ajl requirements for 11 W. works carried out by the department below Netherton were undertaken. EFFECT OF stop-banking. By the department’s operations m constructing stop-banks, the flood level of the Waihou River had been considerably raised, thus reducing the effectiveness, of the boards drains in getting the water off the land, especially in flood’ time,, which was a vital necessity. As the water was held up in the drains and oyer the land for longer periods than formerly, whtjn the stop-banks did not exist the land became water-logged. At the time of. the spending of the Hauraki Drainage Board’s, loan of £lO,OOO frequent efforts were madfe to obtain information from the Public Works, Department concerning its proposed works between Netherton and the- sea, but without success, though the; board was urged to proceed with its scheme and igpore the construction of any s, top-banks. ’ s !it did, and the scheme resulted. The Government had assisted by way of subsidy, but on account of the lacl of co-ordination between the board and the department the benefit from the settlers’ and the Government’s expenditure had beep nullified to a certain extent. extending stop-banks. 'in the face of. the foregoing, the board asked that the Waihou stopbank be continued to connect With the board’s existing stopbank so that the land would be protected from river floodwater, which by reason of the. upper river stop-banking was raised to gr-ejater heights than before. The stop-bank did n °t need, to be high, and the work would not be very costly. PEKAPEKA ROAD. Prior to the completion of the stopbank the Pekapeka Road area was served by two outlets which ran direct into the river. One outlet had recently been blocked entirely, and a, n additional amount of water from the Netherton Drainage: Board’s district had been put into the other drain. - The board had not been consulted about this. The result was that when the river was in flood the water overflowed on to farm land. This position should be relieved. Priof to the stop-banking the land never flooded, and adequate drainage, was available at all times- The main outlet at Carters Corner! had been deviated through the read around several bends, reducing, the velocity of t e outlet. This outlet was also- rendered ineffective in flood periods and caused a ponding area on the front portion of Mr Craig’s land and congestion IM the upper part. of. Porritt’s outlet, thus bringing about flooding on sections 106, 107, and 108, occupied by Messrs Pfint and Johnson. Relief should be given to this area, and Porritt’s outlet should be taken through to within 14 chains of the back boundary of section 99 (Mr R- H. Heappey’s), and thence across to section 4 (Mclntosh’s), joining up with the drain nchv blocked between sections, 1 and 105 (Behrant’s and L- Fisher’s). To enable this additional water to be effectively dealt with it was cphsidk ered that a two-barrel flood-gate should be c.onetr,acted at Porritt’s’*utle|t instead of the single gate now junder construction. This work was Of ; a.n urgent nature, i’n view off the approach of winter, and could be carried out more economically in conjunction with the present work. One of the reasons for asking tor this was that Porritt’s outlet jv'asi ex-, pectqd to carry the water frptm two new drains near the mouth in addition to the" road drain water, the bulk of which was formerly delivered to the river through private drains now blocked up by the stop-hank. Having thus outlined its requests, the board them conducted the Minister through its. area. Mr A- M- Samuel, M.P., also had matters to bring to the minister’s notice. At his request the party proceeded down Captain Cook Road to Mr Syme’s farm. THIRD OF FARM USEDMr W. Syme drew attention to> thq fact that two acres of his farm had been taken for a stop-bank, t.wo acres cut off by the stop-bank, and a liveacre hay paddock rendered unproductive by reason of tiie; seepage from the stop-bank. His farm was of, 37 acres, and he had therefore lost nine acres. His house had been shifted from the site of thq stop-bank into a paddbek, the shape of which had been spoilt, as well as the landl being utilised. A drain put in by the. department had been made entirely cm his land, presumably because the department did not want to remove some trees on a boundary line. This drain and a.ll the spoil which had been put on his land had rendered another two acres useless. The previous, Minister of Public Works had premised! to have, the spoil bank graded back so that it. could be grassed, but the work had hot been done. The result of all this was that he; had been deprived of the use of one-third of his farm, which ■caused his returns to drop by half-

PORRITT’S OUTLET. The Minister was then, shown per- 1 ritt’s outlet by of the board, and also, the drain from around the} river which had been connected to it. The route of the desired extension was also pointed out and its ejffect shown. Moving on tpi the mouth; of the drain, the site of the flood-gate which had been removed last winter was inspected), and it was, explained that all the spring tides had been able to flow up the drain and flood’ farm land. In proof, of this a big, log which had floated up from the river was pointed Out. CAPTAIN COOK ROAD.

Mr W. Madgwick, on be'naV of the County Council, urged that Captain Cock Road, be; made on top of the stop-bank throughout instead of. bn the river side off the bank in places, where it would be impassable in flood period*.

The Minister agrejed with the desirability of the request. Mr L. B. Campbell explained that it would entail acquiring the land, which was part of the settlers’ farm land. The road along, the riverbank was a legalised and metalled one, but there was no question that the top of. the stop-bank was the proper plac.e. Howthose .settlers nearer Carter’s Corner who could use the stop-bank as a road when the river was in flood objected to their land: on the bank being taken, for a toad. ASSISTANCE FOR TOILERS.

Mr G. Puller then interviewed the Minister and pointed out that of the 138 acres in his far.nl 35 acres had been taken for the stop-bank or were* now outside the bank. Four private flood-gates had been closed up,, and drainage was supposed to go to : Porritt’s cutlet, which was. quitq inadequate. The provision of. a flood-gate was essential to give drainage to the front part of the farm. After going round the stop-bank and across the farm the Minister c.om-. mented on the state] of the farm as evidenced by the manner in which the. fescue and blackberry had been removed from the greater part, and observed that the boys were evidently workers. It was obvious, that the farm had been very detrimentally affected by the department's operations, and the case was a genuine one for compensation, Hm would certainly recommend an additional flood-gate, and would see what could be done in regard to compensation. EXTENSION OF STOP-BANK.

The next stop was made at. the end of Gumtdwn Road, an<l Mr Madgwick spoke of the iieejd for extending the Waihou River stop-bank.

Mr A. P. Grant mentioned that the department proposed to extend the bank by hand labour to connect with the existing bank, which went as far as .the; end of Gumtowiu Road. Mr Madgwick urged that the bank be continued round, Huirau Point to Cinnect with the aHuraki United Drainage Board’s bank. He pointed out that as the bperations, of the department advanced down the, river the tidal action .was reduced. The Minister promised to look into the matter. *AT TURUA. A move was then made to Turua, where the Tawn* Board and the Drain-: age Board had lunch awaiting t'hej party at the Turua Boardinghouse. After having dined, Mr A. M. Samuel spoke on behUlf of the people of Turua and district, and 1 extended a welcome to the Minister and Mrs Ransom. Returning thanks, the Minister said that he had been impressed with the hospitality of the people of. the Hauraki Plains. They made him feel quite a.t home. It was rather unfortunate thjit when a Minister went through a district where a. large amount of Government money had been spent he heard so many demands for money that he was rather apt to get the impression that the scheme had gone all wrong- «>H had to remind himself tath he was leaving all. the compajnts and that the great number of settlers who were benefiting had nothing to say. He was sure the river imprptvement scheme was going to mean an enofpious increase in production as time went off. There had been some criticism in th© House of the amount of money spent in the Hauraki Plains, but he was sure the money had been well spent and that the expenditure had been justified. NjGATEA PUMPING SCHEME. Messrs C. W. Schultz, A. Wheeler, and Rowling, settlers rtf' Ngatea, .were introduced by Mr Hicks, c.hal r ' man of /the Drainage Board, at the Turua Buildings. Mr Schultz explained why pumping was necessary for the quick drainage of the 1200 acres, of land near Oichard East Road, and said that the settlers were prepared to raise a loan for four pumping stations. iQn this, a subsidy | was desiredi , Mr E. Taylor, lands drainage engineer, in reply to a question by the Minister, said that the matter had n° t; been the subuje'et of a report up to the present., but a similar request had, been made about a year ago, and his attitude was that it would! be better to subsidise drains and such works than pumps, which were a diminishing asset and might not be .used very much, SLUICE GATES. Mr E. A. Chester, on behalf of the Netherton Drainage Board, urgpd that sluice-gates be provided on the floodgates installed by the Public Works Department at Pukahu at the Puke bridge, and at the end of Rangiora Road.