MOTUEKA HIGHWAY BOARD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 43, 19 February 1877, Page 2

MOTUEKA HIGHWAY BOARD.

The Board held a special meeting oh Saturday evening at 6.30 o'clock. ' J . All the members but Mr M'Donald present. Report of the Secretary of the Motueka Highway Board- on the damage done to roads and bridges by the iate flood. - A. Since the last meeting of the Board the unpracedented high flood has done an enormous amount of damage to, roads and bridges, having cut off communication in every direction within reach of the Motueka river and its tributaries. I have as far, as possible opened up communication by a bric"e track, and where not too costly by a rough cart track. - In the Motueka sub-district the Saltwaterbridge has been washed out of its and deposited close by. I have invited tenders for re-placing it, and ordered new piles, those on which it before rested being much too short. The. bridge over the Wai wero by Mr Carter's property, has. been, quite washed away, rendering the road impassable, but by going through Mr W. H. Parson's land for a short distance and crossing a deep ford the traffic has not been altogether stopped. Several very large holes haye been washed in the roads, one iv High-street, by Mir Rumboldt's, having .token nearly 200 cubic yards of earth to fill it, another by Mr Greenwood's farm has been washed oiit,' but it is not so large as the one in High-street,' and is being filled up, there are also several smaller ones by Mr Atkins farm, Wakarewa, here the gravel has been washed off the road for chains together, the ford across the Wakarewa stream by Mr W. Taylor's has been quite destroyed. .-.. j In Pangatotara sub-district the damage done to the roads is beyond description, the bridge by Mr Heath's has been washed out of its place, and is lying on the bank, the creek being now three times its former width, and very deep. I. consider another bridge here qr*te out of the question, and would recommend that sufficient land for a road be purchased of Mr Evans, so as to cross, the creek where there are no banks ; this would answer very wejl as an outlet for the lower end of the Valley; and for the upper portion I think a road might be obtained by purchasing land of Mr Gascoigne, and crossing the range of hills over a rather low saddle at the back of Mr Starnes, and-wind? ing down the east side of the range to the back of the Moutere Plain. Land for a road ■ up the Valley (above flood mark) would have to be purchased of Mr Sutherland, Mr Hale, Mr Tucker, and the Native Commissioner as far as the Bluff near the Waiwerd "river. The new bridge across this river has stood well, not having sustained ' the slightest damage. Beyond this, land world have (in places) to be purchased of Messrs. Kno"*vles, E. Grooby, B. Lloyd, J. Spicer, and, Mai^ shall. The roai ou each side of. the double bridge has been heaped up with u titnber

about four feet high, for a distance of five or six chains, it has been necessary 'to cut a i iroad-vthrpu^h'.this Ifco ojfen communication, the hill-side beifig tdo'st-lep to £et round. J The foot-bridge acrogs therOrinoco, near "the j mouth has quite disappeared; -this, except for ' the inconvenience, is ;no great loss, as the old bridge had; served its: time, and Was quite Nvofcout. 'y.-- x '" , ';.;V'---.y &y \' VV, In Ngatimoti sub-district the road will be more costly than in any other. Starting from the Orinoco river upwards, a portion of the road has been taken away as far as Mr O'Brien's homestead; round a rocky bluff known t as Major Paton's bluff nearly :the whole Of the road hasten /taken, the part left after being widened a little is just sufficient for a bridle track; from Mr O'Brien's ..homestead to, .the .next bluff the roadis.unT,. injured, but from the bluff to Mr C. Green's , land the cost of making a cart road will be very great, as it will have to be widened iuto a rocky hill sido to get a safe road; there has been a large deposit of logs, silt, and sand on Mr.C. Green's flat; the old Waterfall creek is completely stopped up, the water having made a new course for itself. Here (marvellous;, as it appears) the land has made ..about 3£ chains into th,e bed of the Motueka river, showing- what a;;huge mass of earth and-;debris must have come down, the creek -at one time, not to have been swept away by the Motueka river tearing down its course at high flood. This huge mass appears to have pushed the river into the bank on the opposite side, having apparently taken away a corresponding width of land to that made on this side. From Waterfall creek tb the bluff opposite Mr Malpas' very little of the road has been taken '-away, but there is a large deposit of debris at intervals on the road; at the bluff the whole of the road has been washed away, and. as well as I could see (not haying- been quite close to it) the making of another road is quite impracticable without building with rock on the outside; from the bluff to the Dove river the road (as elsewhere) is covered in many places with logs, &c, and to! this portion nothing has been done to make it passable; from the lower crossing of the ; Dove river along the bank of the same to the end of the district the damage done to the road is very great. The way in which the creeks and gullies have been swept out is altogether beyond description, large masses of rock having been dislodged and .tumbled into the river, as if they had been only'so many.boulder stones. The lower portion of the Dove river was always supposed to be rock bound, and it was considered that there was no danger of the road being torn away, but its rocky sides are no longer there, and all the rock that has been torn out has been swept away. The road in the Orinoco Valley bas been | very much damaged; culverts being washed away, bridges injured, and several large slips 'from the hill side being deposited on the road. - Upper and Lower Moutere sub-districts have not sustained so much injury. Two or three -foot and cart bridges having been taken away, a ford washed out, and a few slips on the hill, road being about ..the extent of the damage done.---r At the Riwaka sub-district no great amount of damage has been done, but the, loss of i property to private persons in the Brooklyn! pa.v of the district is very great. I With the exception of about three miles in the Ngatimoti sub-districfc, from the Bluff opposite Mr Malpas' to the crossing of the Dove towards the Baton, -communication is (or will be in a day or two) made with every part Cf the district, a track having been cut through private property where the roads have been washed away. ( , I estimate the cost of purchasing land for j roads,-; where required, making roads and ! bridges above flood mark, at £4000, and I i also think if that sum were expended, the (district would be no better off for roads than ; before the late disastrous flood. It appears to me that if the Colonial Government would make a grant of a sufficient ; amount to reinstate the roidsand bridges i that' have been destroyed ifc Would, to a great extent alleviate the distress that is certain to prevail during the next six months by Dividing work for many of those who for'the time being, have been deprived of their subsistence, and would also be the means of inducing many to, remain in the district and enable them to settle down again; for I feel certain that without roads a number of those persons who have been profitably occupying Crown land will be compelled to throw it up, and seek a living elsewhere. , I have not invited tenders . for the "works agreed. on at last meeting. In many places the flood, by taking away the roads, rendered it impossible, and the other works I thought the Board wouldprefer should stand over until after this meeting. ; j ':.' Resolved,- That the report- just read be adopted,. ahd tbat a deputation consisting of the Chairman, Messrs Dencker and Burrell, and the Secretary, wait on Mr Curtis with the view of requesting him , ; to communicate to the Colonial Govern- ' ment the necessity of a grant of money being made -.to the Board for ..reinstating .. the roads and bridges destroyed by the late flood. ____-—>«" ""