PREVENTION OF FLOODS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2068, 16 December 1919, Page 3

PREVENTION OF FLOODS.

A meeting of the advisory committee of the Maim wain sub-provin-cinl Fanners' Fnion was held on Saturdav io consider tin: mailer oi. the .Hooding id. tin* lower Afanavialu district. .Mr 11. Vile presided, and the other niemhers oi. I lie coiimiitlce present were Messr.- 1. A . Hubbard and \V. P. Ncilsen. There were also present Mr •). Linklatcr (chairman of the Kairanga County Council), Air J. C. McEwen, (secretary of the Tiakitahuna branch), Mr If. Akers, Air W. R. Birnie, and Mr S. dickell. Air Alee rs exjdained what the [trivale owners at Alakcruii were doing. He said that the (lax on the land, was dying out, that goatsrue was taking charge of the country. Ihe land required to he drained and steps taken to eradicate the noxious weeds. If that were done Use country might he made into proiitahle dairy farms. The ditlicuhy wa-- that in many places the Iced of the swamp was lower than that of (he river, and it would he necessary to hank up the river in [daces and cut off some of the points. With others he was interested in obtaining special machinery from America lor building up the hanks and dredging the channels. He suggested that the whole work should he done by a drainage hoard, or through some special board, and that some arrangements should he come to for one main outlet instead of; a number of drains as at present. He mentioned that the syndicate he represented were dealing with about 1(1,000 acres-of the Makerua swamp. Air dickell produced the report of a commission that was set up to inquire into the matter in 100 S, which he read, and by means of a map 1 raced the various schemes suggested. He afterwards went on to explain that in all 29 settlors had combined in Ihe privale scheme mentioned by Mr Akers to endeavour to save their properties. He also pointed out that wherever the flood wafers covered the land goatsrue had spread to such an extent as to make the properties absolutely useless. Ho expressed approval of the report of the commission, and said that the only way to overcome the difficulty was to straighten the river by cutting off the corner.- end raising the hanks. This would reduce its length by between 11 end 12 miles, and would have the des-.r-ed effect. The cost would be about £70,000, and would affect about 16,000 acres of hind. It was decided to hold a meeting at Kangiotu on Friday evening next ofall those interested in the matter.