SETTLING HAURAKI PLAINS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 812, 5 November 1929, Page 7

SETTLING HAURAKI PLAINS

PROGRESS OF DRAINAGE WORKS A f'reat increase in the amount of settlement on Hauraki Plains will i eventuate in the next few years if the signs indicated by the nature of the works which the Lands Drainage Department now has in hand are read rightly. About eighteen square miles of country are shown on departmental plan" as being drained and surveyed for future selection and the signs are that this work is about to be accomplished. Marked progress has been made of late with the construction of the \\ai-takaruru-Maukoro Canal, and a significant fact is that the cut is now down to the clay in parts where ther* was formerly over 30ft of peat. indeed, on its next passage of the section where it is now operating the dredge will probably bring up fuir loads of clay. The cut has now reached the J oreI hape Road and the consolidation of the i peat country passed through has been : very marked despite the fact that dams have had to be built to back up the water so that the dredge would float. The dredge will shortly be working down hill, and it is possible that thdams will be removed. in which case the country would undergo a transformation and very quickly become suitable for settlement. A sign that this action may be taken is afforded by the fact that as part of the Government's unemployment reI Uef work scheme men are now being 1 employed digging sectional boundarv drains to the Torehape Road outlet* This is possibly being done with tit* | purpose of hastening the consolidation and decay of the peat in this area so that the whole area from Waitakaruru through the middle of the Hauraki ■plains to Torehape can be made available for settlement about the sam"

time. It has been announced on many occasions by Ministers of Lands that the department would finish its work within the next few years, but th» length of time which this particular area has been in process of being drained and the apparent slow prn•■ress lias diverted attention from the fact that this area would have to be opened for settlement before the department could consider its work completed. In the opinion of competent judges of peat land this area will make excellent farm and will come in rapidlv once the water in the canal is lowered Over 140 sections are surveyed in this area, and when settled Hauraki .Plains will undoubtedly be the most thickly populated dairy fnrminr district in the Dominion.