MANAWATU RIVER CUT IMPOSSIBLE.

Shannon News, 29 December 1922, Page 3

MANAWATU RIVER CUT IMPOSSIBLE.

| NEW SCHEME TO MINIMISE f FLOODS. ; 9 1 INTERESTING TO SHANNON. Members of the recently-constituted ' Maiiawatu-Oroua River Drainage Board, headed by their chairman, Mr R. T. Bell, waited on the Foxton Harbour Board at its last meeting to urge that body’s co-operation—moral : and financial—in a scheme that the Drainage Board would probably bring ' down in the near future as far as it ' affected the Harbour Board’s area.

i Mr Bell explained that his board ! had drawn up a scheme to protect the lower basin of the Manawatu from future floods by constructing a drain 1 from a point just below the junction ! of the Manawatu and Oroua. Rivers j in a straight line across country to : an outlet about, five miles above the | mouth of the Manawatu. At the last j meeting of the Board, however, Mr j Hay, consulting engineer, submitted a j survey showing that the proposed Himatangi cut was impossible, as the levels were against them, and conse- ; quently the cost, estimated at two and a-half millions,, was prohibitive. The

Drainage Board now had in embryo a

scheme to make the cut lower down. Anyone who had folloAved the history of the district and the measures Ihat have been taken for protection from floods, said Mr Bell, realised that under the altered conditions now

obtaining, some big scheme would have to be adopted to protect the land on both sides of the river. About. 75,000 acres at present were subject to .flooding. It was not only a mat j tec of vital importance to the areas I controlled by the two Boards, but io the Government as well, as the Foxton line had often been interfered with by flood waters. The alternative scheme would bring the cut through to Hartley’s bend, and it was the latter portion of the scheme that the Harbour Board’s co-operation was desired. Mr A. Seifert said the Drainage Board had not yet received a final recommendation from its engineer, and therefore they could not put definite proposals before the Harbour Board. It would be some months before then, but.in.the meantime they could don their considering caps. Mr J. A. Nash reminded those piesent that any expenditure incurred by the Harbour Board would have to he met by way of loan, and therein lay a possible difficulty. The Board had given the ratepayers to. Understand that, they would not be committed to any further expenditure when the loan for taking over the wharves was carried. They appreciated the position, and he saw that the Drainage Boards scheme was going to revolutionise the properties concerned. (Hear, hear.) The speaker could foresee no difficulty in the ManawatuQroua. Board raising the necessary funds, but there must be co-operation by the parties. Mr. J. Linklater endorsed what Mr Nash had said, and promised that his Board would do his best to assist the scheme ini any way possible. After the deputation had retinal, Mr E, R. Holben moved,. Mr J. Chrystall seconded, and it was carried that when the Drainage Board had definitely decided on’ The route of ihe proposed cut., the Board would consider it, it being understood that the attitude of the latter body hinged on the effect of the scheme on Ihe wharves.