GOVERNMENT WATER RACES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 336, 13 August 1875, Page 2

GOVERNMENT WATER RACES.

The three large water-races for supplying water on the goldfields have all of them proved much more costly undertakings than was anticipated. A further sum of £41,000 is required to complete them. The excess is caused mainly by the large expenditure necessary to seeure the stability of the head works of the Nelson Creek and Waimea Races. The same result has occurred on the large water-race atNaseby which is being supervised by the Provincial Government of Otago, for which £IO,OOO additional is required. It would appear that, with all the precautions which have been taken to obtain reliable data previously to.the commencement of the four great works, the same unsatisfactory results have been met with as have occurred in respect to similar undertakings in other parts of the world, and more particularly in India, California, and the adjoining Colony of Victoria. Fortunateley the works entered npon in New Zealand are not on such a large scale as in those cases also above referred to, and the waterraces undertaken will, if the House votes the necessary funds, be completed, and within a few months be made remunerative. But Mr. Richardson is ready to admit that the late Government of which he was a member, made a grave error in yielding to the prtssure which was brought to bear upon it, and entering upon the construction of these races without more reliable data. The new survey of the Mikoriui Water-race is finished, but not yet to hand. It will be dealt with later in the session. A large number of public buildings have been erected under the direction of the Colonial Architect, but the high prices of labor and material of all descriptions have compelled the Government to hold over all those which the requirements of the public service permitted.