MOTUEKA RIVER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 311, 31 December 1872, Page 2

MOTUEKA RIVER.

The following report on the . Motueka River at Pangatotara has been sent in by Mr Dbbeon :-r- a yAA ' To the Provincial Secretary, Nelson. . Sm^lbaye the honor to hand yo£ the foUoW-,-irig report upon : the , ; river encroachments at -P^ga^a^i^iyX-yA^yyyyAXXA >.a"a 'a' A : ''; : e_amm«d4t_Etericr6 riveV has destroyed a good deal, of land on the

.south ride near Wright's and Gascoigne's, not only has the road been washed away, but the . river threatens to leave its present bed and form a new channel commencing at a low place in .Wright's land, thence through Horneman's down an.old channel, through a number of farms, and joining the river again somewhere between Douglas' and Greenwood's, destroying in its course a great deal of valuable land. Two points call for special consideration in the matter. — First, the construction of a road to connect the up-river settlers with Motueka, and second, the loss of land, and what means cau be adopted for the prevention of further encroachment. With respect to the former, I consider it impossible to make a road that will stand anywhere on the level ground, the only safe line being on the hill-side well clear of the floods. As you have already reports' on, and estimates, of this work, it is unnecessary for me to say anything more here With regard to the second point, 1 he protection of the threatened lands, I fear I can hold out but little hope of anything that can be done that will have any permanently good effect. The river is encroaching simply because it has fiMed up its bed so that the water can run more easily oyer the low ground adjoining than in the old bed. Thus at the beach near Wright's homestead, the river bed has been so filled with detritus that a two-foot rise sends* the water over the bank! The only possible way to keep tbe river within "bounds would be by large and costly embarkments, which would have tb be raised to keep pace with the filling up of the bed — and as the filling up of the river bed increases more rapidly year by year as more bush is felled, and land brought into cultivation up the river — the works would become yearly more costly and difficult to maintain. It has been suggested that the present danger from the beach near Wright's might be averted by cutting a channel through the shingle bed near Jennings, and directing the water into the new cut by a groin or groins near Gascoigne's — but I fear that these works, besides being costly, would be very uncertain in their action, the groins would require to be very substantially built to stand a flood, and would require to be very large to have any appreciable effect, and if they diverted the current well once to the north side of the river, the chances are that alljenning's low land would be immediately destroyed to begin with, after which the bed would again fill with shingle, and the river would again attack the beach, but this time from a greater height. I have, &c. A. Dudley Dobson, Provincial Engineer.