INLAND WATERWAYS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 249, 9 February 1917, Page 3

INLAND WATERWAYS.

Meeting in Waiuku.

The Project to be Furthered

For some months past the Onehunga Chamber of Commerce has greatly interested itself in the question of the inland waterways, and its efforts culminated yesterday in a gathering at Waiuku, where some seventy people representative of a large extent of country met as the guests of the Onehunga and Waiuku Chambers of Commerce. Among the more prominent of them were —Sir Frederick Lang (Speaker of the House of Representatives), Messrs Young, Harris, Dickson, Glover, Payne and Field, M.P.'s, Edward Anderson (President, of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce), W. Beddoe (Trade Commissioner for Canada), J. Flanagan (chairman Franklin County Council), Wynyard (Onehunga Chamber of Commerce), j. W. Ellis (Frankton Borough Council), J. S. Bond (Auckland Harbour Board) and H. Wernham (Hamilton Chamber of Commerce). During their trip from Onehunga the boisterous S.S. W. wind not only gave the passengers and unpleasant experience of how rougb the Manukau may at times become, but delayed the arrival of the steamer by at least an hour, so the proceedings upon landing had to be somewhat curtailed. After luncheon the party proceeded to the Town Hall, where they were joined by a numerous gathering of residents of Waiuku and the neighbourhood After the visitors had been formally welcomed by Mr Adamson, the president of the Waiuku Chamber of Commerce, Mr Young, M.P. for Waikato, proposed the following motion : " That, while acknowledging that the present. calls of Imperial necessity prevent any heavy expenditure in the construction of public works, the proposals for and incidental to canal connection between the Waikato river, the Manukau and the Waitemata harbour should be perfected in readiness for the time when finance is more available for development works, and, with that object in view, that the Government be urged to provide that the sittings of the Canal and Inland Waterways Commission be resumed at an early date."

The motion was seconded by Mr Wynyard, and was supported by all the members of Parliament present and Messrs Anderson and Beddoe, and upon being put to the meet>ng was carried without dissent. After the meeting about twenty motor cars, which were kindly lent by their owners for the occasion, conveyed the visitors through portions of the Otaua and Aka Aka Plains, so that they might obtain an idea of the country through which the Manukau-Waikato canal will run when constructed. About 6 p.m. Waiuku was reached on the return journey, and the visitors, who expressed themselves highly delighted with the quality of the country they had been taken over, were entertained at tea, and about 8 o'clock once more boarded their steamer en route for Onehunga Although the visiting members of the party appeared to be strongly iu favour of an immediate endeavour to get a canal opened to connect the Waikato with the Manukau, and appear to hold the idea that speedy success will follow their representations there seems to be only a lukewarm feeling in its favour among the residents of Waiuku. There is a pretty general impression that it would be of no use to them without direct communication w;th Auckland, and that the Waitemata-Manukau canal should be the one first dug. There exists, however, a strong desire, especially among the settlers at Aka Aka and Otaua, that the Waterways Commission should at least look into the question of the management and control of the Waikato river, the function for which it was originally set up. Few, if any, look upon the ambitious scheme of linking up the chief waterways of the North as at all likely to eventuate within the life-time of this generation.