WAIPA NAVIGATION SCHEME.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 257, 7 May 1910, Page 3

WAIPA NAVIGATION SCHEME.

Suggested Clearing and Deepening. Last week, a well-attended meeting filled the benches of the Pirongia Public Hall, to listen to the promoters of the Waipa Navigation Scheme. Mr W. G. Macky was voted to the chair. Mr A. S. Ormsby, to whose initiative the movement is due, laid his suggestions before the meeting. Briefly these comprise the clearing and deepening of the channel of the Waipa from a point near Te Kopua downward, so as to permit launch traffic at all seasons of the year. The value and importance of such a public work could hardly be over-estimated as regards its effects upon the welfare of future settlement of the territory served by the river at the present time, while the immense area that would be opened up to a cheap and reliable means of transit, above Pirongia, iovests the scheme with an importance that should enlist the hearty support of Hamilton, Ngaruawahia, and other trade centres that I would be affected. The further use of the water-ways of the province is a burning question, and the prosperity of the Waikato will depend largely upon the earnestness with which such a project as this is assisted by the larger centres. A telegram from Mr H. J. Greenslade, M.P., was read, expressing his regret at unavoidable absence and promising his heartiest support in attempting to give effect to any decision the meeting arrived at. Mr Symes, who did good service on a similar work on the Wanganui, wrote promising support and regretting his enforced absence. In the result a committee was appointed to take the matter in hand, and Captain Marshall, of the Wanganui River Trust has been approached with a view to securing his services in surveying and reporting upon the river here as a preliminary step.—Waikato "Times." Mr John Skuse representing the Waipa Navigation Committee, wired to Mr Adams, County engineer Waitomo County Council, on Monday last: "Can you arrange visit here for the purpose of reporting on the condition of the Waipa river as regards the possibility and cost of clearing the channel from Pirongia to Kopua. Matter urgent in view of possible change in the weather." Mr Adams visited the locality on Wednesday and his report is favourable. At reasonably small cost the river can be made navigable.