Flood Protection

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 4

Flood Protection

The Public Works Department is to have yet another Manawatu interest, the flood problem of the Manawatu and Oroua rivers, the Minister advising that an engineer of the department is to make a comprehensive study of these waterways. The decision is one of high importance as some 70,000 acres of the most fertile soil in the Dominion is affected. In his references to this problem, the Hon. It. Semple was somewhat unkind to the many able and conscientious men who have already given study to the matter. Over ten years ago the Manawatu-Oroua River Board made a complete investigation of ways and means of controlling the rivers and detailed plans and estimates for carrying out the necessary works, were compiled by a foremost hydraulic engineer. Then a Government Commission investigated the problem thoroughly. The works were not carried out, the reason being the difficulty of gaining sufficient benefit for land-owners to compensate for the rating that would result from the large expenditure required. The Government of the day did not see its way to grant as large a snm from the public purse as the board considered necessary. This same problem of individual betterment and rates and national benefit and grant relationship must again arise. The Minister made it clear that landowners must bear a fair share of the burden. That burden will, in fact, depend upon the degree to which the State is prepared to support the scheme. Until such time as the State announces what it is prepared to provide, land-owners cannot consider the question of supporting the undertaking.