Waikare Drainage.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 8, Issue 475, 24 October 1919, Page 4

Waikare Drainage.

Sir,—Re your report of River Board's meeting at Mercer, October 10th, I ask you to give; publicity ti my correction of the very incorrect portion of same headed " Lake Waikare Drainage." It will appear to your readers, from peru?, r -1 of this paragraph, that the Waikare drainage had been discussed by the River Board, resultkg in their opinion that the loweriyinglands would be flooded for longer periods than at present.

As a member of that unfortunate River Board, and one who was present at the meeting referred to, I can state (hat the presumption is quite contrary to fact. At a former meeting, about a year ap:o, when I brought the matter up and asked the Board go consent to the wish of the Waikare ratepayers to form ;i special Board to be called Lake Waikare Drainage Board, explaining the object <'n view and fall from Lake Waikare to Whangamarino River, Mr Glass, chairman of the Waikato River voted in its favour, and proposed " that a Lake Waikare Drainage Board be established.' -Carried unanimously. The Waikare Drainage Board are how looking after their own affairs, and know that though the catchment or rain water of Waikare basin will, when the cot ic put through to Whangamar no River, enter the Waikato River .it Mercer. The quantity 01 this catchment water will be so approximately small to th" body it enters that it will be injurious to none, and result in reclaiming between 15 to i l ' thousand acres of first-class land. If the River Board (which has now been in existence for about six years) h:d first turned (heir attention to this gre.it cheap, and easily .-<ccompliehed work, and left alone '.heir less practical and expensive experiments, there is no douH that the confidence and support of the province and government would have been theirs. This fact ha:- new been well demonstrated by the River Board's assistance in Maungatawhiri Valley drainage scheme, which has already increased the value of the adjacent lands from almost nothing to £2h per acre

In conclusion. I woul I like to intorm your interested readers that the Lake Waikare Drainage is now in the capable hands of the Government Chief Drainage Engineer (Mr I. 13. Thomson), in whom we have the confidence, that with the results ot present and past surveys he will, with all possible speed, accomplish Lake Waikare Drainage, P. HENRY,

Member. Waikato River Board. Also, Secretary Waikare Drainage Bd (Our report was in error, due to certain peculiar circumstances. Owing to our not having been informed of the date of the previous monthly meeting we were not represented, and when our representative heard, at the Inst meeting, the Waikare drainage being discussed informally, one party making the comment as reported, he wrongly took the inference that the matter had come up at the previous meeting, with the result mistakenly stated in our report. As a matter of fact, we entirely concur with the views of our correspondent, and we hope the scheme will be pushed on rapidly, thus bringing in, almost immediately, a large tract of wiiat will be excellent agricultural and dairying country. Certainly, the effect of this drainage ilow into trie Waikato River will not make much more difference to the river level than the flow of the river makes to the ocean which is nil. Increased production is so vitally necessary to the national welfare, in view of our heavy indebtedness, that no minor considerations can be allowed to impede the work of reclaiming rich virgin soil -ED. F.& P. Times.|