THE KOPUTAROA FLOODGATE.

Shannon News, 15 October 1926, Page 3

THE KOPUTAROA FLOODGATE.

DEPUTATION DECLINES COUNCIL'S OFFER.

Near the end of the Buckley West Road,, and close, to the mouth of the Koputaroa stream, is a floodgate which, at the present time, is not in a good state 1 of repair. For some little time the Horowhemia County Council and the Buckley Drainage District (the extension of which was recently gazetted following the deliberations of a commission held early in the year) have been negotiating with one another as to which body should control the floodgate and what proportion of renewal coats each body should contribute. At Saturday's.meeting of the Horowhemia County Council a deputation comprising Messrs E. W. Taylor, R. J. Law 1 end J. Richardson, representing the Buckley Drainage Board, waited upon the Council in.regard to the latter's offer of £75 as the first, and final, contribution towards the of the floodgate following a recent conference between representativs of both bodies.

Mr Taylor said they wanted to: come to a satisfactory arrangement in regard to the repair of- the Koputaroa floodgate, but which had not, so far, been effected, although at the recent' meeting between Crs. Barber, Kilsby, the County Engineer and members of the Drainage Board, the speaker did' think that something in this direction had been accomplished. At that meeting the engineer suggested what lie consid(red necessary in the way of reairs, and' he believed the majority of the Board was prepared to agree. Of course, the question of taking over the maintenance of the floodgate was a difficult-matter,, but that had been d,oiie away with because the Board had been' notified that their district had been enlarged to take "it in. The Hoard now requested the Council to contribute a little more than the suggested £75, plus the timber accessary to tarry <Jut the work. Mr Anderson's idea was to use the timber of the bridge oil the Sbannon-Foxtun road; but this did not appear to be practicable as some of this timber was useless. The deputation hoped to get over the indefinite state.,in which the position now presented itself. Mr Law said he would like to draw the Council's attention to the condition of things brought about by the floodgate being left open as it was. For the past week the whole of his property,' practically spaking, was under water. It was only right that the matter should be finalised, and the suggestion put forward by the previous speaker would meet the case'.

Mr Richardson, the third-member ot ! the deputation; said he was in the same position as Mr Law, for out of -176 acres ahoiit l"iO were under water; which was very hard. To his way of thinking the Council >i'«l side-stepped the question of repairing tl,e floodgate, and when he went' down to look at the timber suggested bv the Engineer, he found that hardlv aiiv of it was fit to go in. The -Chairman (Mr G-. A. Monk)This is a hardy- perennial! So far as this Council.is concerned we have -always felt a sense of injustice at having to 'maintain, that particular floodgate. ; || is, possibly, operating to serve a few of our ratepayers who, at the same time, are in the drainage board's district, and'who would benefit by the fact of the gate being there. We have felt that the people in that district should have control,of that floodgate, and that the trouble would be overcome by the inclusion' of a larger number of people in the drainage district. The Council has gone into the matter, and the Engineer estimates that the gate could l)c repaired, for £75, and we are prepard,to carry that out provided the Buck lev Orainage district also are prepared to take over the gate. Apparently,'Mr Anderson has taken into consideration the cost of the timber, as he told mi! the timber from the bridge was not 1o be used. If the Board is jifrreonhle to accept the £75, J think the (Jouncil would hand over the gate to vtfi. which would satisfactorily clear up the whole matter. Certainly,; itwould bo niore satisfactory to the ratepayers in the drainage area, if the gate is'going to keep their land dry. Mr Tjivlor: I am afraid we think you dcii't mute meet the case. First of all, v.jifn the matter was being discussed, several offers of help were made by settlers. Of course, you might say they still o.m help, and Mr Anderson himself said Hint the work of filling, carried out with horses and drays, would ]„.' of "teat assistance. The position i b ~( Jw different in regard to th.-m as the dairying season has begun.

The Chairman: There are two aspects ( rf the situation—your own and the

Council's. . , Mr Taylor: Since you havr. brought un the question of injustice, 1 would like to have an assurance from the Council that, ratepayers will not be :. lied upon to contribute to tins mistake as they have been asked to con--1 i-iltute to others? ThChairmrui: I don't know that re..rimination will get us very rar. It ..w. '.- me that you are thiowing »» e f J nnh . ilis the floodtin- who).' onus of lepaiung e WJl fe on the Council; that is, people at Ohau and Tokomavu will have to contrilmte, but I haven't heard any W m «„t to .how why they should do The contribution of £75 appears to me ~, l)t . a very reasonable offer. Instead of doing the work, we arc prepared to aiaud. over £75, which, Mr Anderson assures me; would cover the whole The "lirat estimate v/as in the vicinity of £OO or £OO, remarked the Engineer, provided the gate was. built up with timber from the bridge, but wlfen this

was discovered to be useless, the estimate was altered. Mr-Bichardson: One engineer estimated the work would cost £l5O. In leaving the gate open, as it is to-day, who is going to pay the piper? It means this, that the Horowhemia County Council >s responsible for the gate, and unless there is something done, there will be an action for damages. The Chairman: We don't have deputations here to make threats. There is an offer, and unless the Council likes to alter that—l am authorised by the Council to make this offer to you—you can turn it down. We are making the offer with the idea that it is a reasonable one. We haven't said wc won't repair the gate, but I think you gentlemen understand the position sufficiently to know that it is time something was done, as well as regards the future maintenance of the gate. If you are not prepared to do the repair work I presume the onus is on the Council to do it. You are going to do the work in your own way, with our moneycould you have anything fairer than that? Or. Catley: We have to work within or income, and if we fail to do that wc will be individually responsible. There are roads in need of repair, but we haven't sufficient money to provide for the work. The thing should be borne locally and not generally. Mr Taylor: Mr Hay was the engineer who made the estimate of £l5O. The chairman: Now, Mr Taylor, is it reasonable for you to come here and ask us to go behind the back of our engineer?. This thing couhi go on in definitely—you fighting for the Drainage'Board, and I, presumably, fighting for the Council. Now, unless we can agree this work will have to be done by proclamation and that would cost probably £75. At best A it would only be a temporary work, ,'lt has caused the Council a good deal of concern to know that certain lands are being flooded through chat gate being down. Honestly, I feel we are making you a fair offer. There is aU'o the matter of the Aratangata drain. We have discussed our responsibility there, and we .don't want to shirk it. This other scheme, costing £l5O, would be a good deal more elaborate than the one, suggested by our engineer, and would, in time to j come, be rendered worthless. Mr Taylor agreed that the Board ; would not spend all the money now on , the floodgate. . I

Mr Kilsby sai.d that it now came to light that the arrangement recently made appeared satisfactory, and now the deputation came along with something new. It was rather a difficult matter to say offhand, that the Council should undertake to hand over the £75 to the Drainage Board in view of the present position, and seeing, the onus was on the Council. The Council was prepared to do the work for the amount to be given, and if the Board wanted something further it must let the Council know.

Air Law asked the engineer whether his estimate was for one side of the gate, included the question of repairs, or.the shifting of spoil, as well as the work required to complete,the gate before being taken over by the Board. At present there was a large quantity of spoil being thrown on to the culvert on the northern side.

The Engineer said the estimate provided for the amount of damage done up to the time the two parties met on the location of the drain. Already, timber 'had been sent there, but it was never used.- Later, timber had been sent for repairing the northern wing. This estimate-was for repairs to the southern wing and the removal of any spoil in the southern wing.

Mr Taylor said he and other members of the Beard understood that it was to have been both north and-, south

Wings. Mr Law said that at that conference he took it iha I; the Council would put the gate in. first-class condition, and the Drainage Board would then take it over.

The Chairman: It struck me I hat it would be better to have this matter settled before a Magistrate. The Act is quite clear cm the matter and we could then settle both this and the matter of the Aratangata drain. It cannot, be indefinitely left over, because something must be'done to the floodgate. As a settlement cannot be effected it seems that the best thing would be to have the matter brought before a Magistrate and finally wound up. lam sorry an amicable agreement has not been reached. '' .' .

Mr Tavlor: Personally, I think your; suggestion in regard to the Magistrate is a right one. The deputation was withdrawing, when Mr Law made a final attempt to secure a settlement. "Could not the County spring a little on the £75,'.' he asked." The position of the people concerned, was not a very rosy one. They had to carry on and pay their way. Their pocket was not a bottomless one but would very soon be empty.. The Chairman said the Council was anxious to remove the trouble and prevent a recurrence. One had to remember that shortly this flood gate would be done away with and would, to a certain extent be a waste of money. Was it the feeling of the whole deputation that the case should go before a Magistrate? Mr Taylor: It is my feeling. The Chairman: I am more than sorry because I feel you are making a mistake in not accepting our offer. The deputation then withdrew, fol- | lowing which the Council re-affirmed its previous decision .to contribute £75 to the reconstruction of the Koputaroa floodgate. The subject was then dropped and the next business on the orde: paper dealt with. '