WAIKATO RIVER SILTING.

Shannon News, 3 December 1929, Page 3

WAIKATO RIVER SILTING.

FARMERS EXPRESS ANXIETY. RANGIRIRI, Nov. 29. Farmers in the low-lying areas of the Rangiriri district are expressing increased anxiety regarding the silting up of the Waikato River. In the course of conversation on the subject one farmed, holding a considerable area, pointed out that, while the canals at present were still carrying three feet of water, the sandbanks were already' showing up in the river. In -previous years, he said, the sandbanks did not 'show up strongly until the canals were empty. This year, while the eanals were carrying a big vo'.urae of water, the river was revealing' shallows only noticeable at low summer level. Until information is available regarding the river survey now in progress it is not possible to say what the general effect of the silting has been recently, but farmers are certainly insistent that, unless some national scheme of improvement is proved possible —and undertaken —much of the low-lying country now occupied must be abandoned.