FARM A “SUMP HOLE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 122, 13 August 1927, Page 9

FARM A “SUMP HOLE”

SETTLER’S MISFORTUNE RESULT OF DRAINAGE SCHEME (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Remission of land-tax totalling £367 is sought by an Auckland farmer, Thomas Seccombe, whose petition was presented to Parliament to-day by Mr. F. F. Hockly (Rotorua). Seccombe says that for about 26 years he has been engaged in pioneering and breaking-in 3.200 acres of land in the parish of Matata. He constructed five miles of river banking, and 26 miles of internal drains. But the operations of the Rangitaiki Drainage Board, says Seccombe, resulted in the unloading of the bulk of waters in areas totalling 32,000 acres of adjoining higher land, on to his own land, which has been converted virtually “into a sump hole.” These operations were apparently inevitable for the drainage of the higher lands, and his lands accordingly suffered to the greater interests of other people. He made advances of about £I.OOO to the Drainage Board for the undertaking of two important works, but practically the whole of his own work has been destroyed. The hardships he suffered precluded his prompt payment of land tax.