KEEPING THE CHANNEL OPEN.

Shannon News, 10 September 1926, Page 2

KEEPING THE CHANNEL OPEN.

-. When Mr. W. E. Barber was giving evidence before the Manawatu-Oroua River Board's District Commission last week Mr. Vile, representing the Manaw.atu Ratepayers' Association, asked permission to put several questions to witness. "Mr. Barber,'/ said Mr. Vile, "dealing with the proposed new cut from Moutoa to the sea, do you think that the river will scour the river bed as suggested by the board's engineer?" —Mr. Barber: Yes and no. The bed of the Moutoa district is very little above high tides. Df you know if the present river bed at Moutoa is about the same love] as the high tide of the sea?—Witness said he had just answered that question and went on to detail the action of the tides in the vicinity.

If so, would not the earth scoured from the new cut be carried out towards the sea, and be brought back again with the tide, and thus eventually form a bar towards the mouth of the bar?—No. My experience of the 1924 flood was that the action of the tide and gales took all the silt out to •sea. Are you aware that a great number, about half, of the ratepayers in the Moutoa district have signed a petition to abolish the Board?—A large landowner in the Moutoa area sent it around and I think the (people signed it without appreciating its importance. I know that fully half signed it.