MANAWATU-OROUA RIVERS BOARD SCHEME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3848, 22 September 1928, Page 3

MANAWATU-OROUA RIVERS BOARD SCHEME.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS. £ FOR £ SUBSIDY ASKED FOR, The question of , subsidising the Manawatu-Oroua Rivers Board scheme for the protection of rich lands in the district was again brought before the Minister of Public W|orks and the Minister of Lands on Thursday at Wellington by a deputation from the board introduced by Mr. J. Linklater, M.P., who briefly, outlined the situation. The scheme, he said, involved an expenditure of £210,000, and the deputation asked for a £ for £ sub : •sidy. Already 23,000 acres of the land had been protected, but there was danger to the remaining 70,000 acres from flooding. He explained the subsidiary scheme which was provided for the protection of these lands. If no subsidy were granted the work could not go on, because the settlers could not stand the extra taxation that would be necessary.

Members of the board who were present explained the position, stating that land -worth £BO an acre was in danger of being swept away. After hearing the deputation, the Hon. A. D. McLeod said that he was interested in the scheme from the production point of view, but he had also to consider what the cost of the increased production was to he to the general taxpayer of the

country. That aspect of the matter required very careful consideration indeed. He had been working on an idea in regard to Crown land that needed no drainage at all, but that with the expenditure of a million of money on a million acres would give a large amount of extra production. That was Crown land, not private land, as was the land referred to by the deputation. In his own district there were river problems similar to the one brought before the notice of Ministers by the deputation, but there was a limit to the borrowing the country could do. Any Government that went in for unlimited borrowing would not last long in this country. He knew that this land had tremendous possibilities, but he had not looked into the engineering scheme. The land would have no value unless the water could be kept off it. In some districts men had given £lO an acre for land that they should not have given ten shillings for, and then they saw they could not protect it. Now it was too late, and the democracy of to--day would not stand for the protection by the Government of expensive land. The Minister of Public Works, who closely questioned the deputation regarding»various features of the scheme, said he could not give the deputation an answer off hand.