Protection of Waipukurau Homes

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 41, 18 February 1937, Page 2

Protection of Waipukurau Homes

BANK THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILE LONG. (Special to “Times.") WAIPUKURAU, Feb. 17. The protection of 70 homes in the low-lying area of Waipukurau from the menace of future floods is to be assured in a scheme of river control the borough council intends carrying out shortly. Since March of last year there has been considerable agitation for improved river control but at a conference of local bodies last January no agreement could be reached and an offer of £650 from the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, towards the cost of a preliminary survey, had to be refused. The Waipukurau Borough Council, ‘in its estimates this year, sets aside £IOO for the jmrpose, but the scheme now proposed by the engineer, Mr. H. B. Smart, involving the construction of a stop-bank three-quarters of a mile long is estimated to cost about £IOOO. Interviewed by a 4 ‘Times" represen tative to-day Mr. Smart said that his idea was to construct a stop-bank between the railway and traffic bridges i which would continue down the river bank for about half a mile. The total length of the bank would bp approxis mately three-quarters of a mile. The bank would be about four feet I wide on top, the width of its base varying according to the height. The slope would be one in one.