Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1907.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43108, 22 June 1907, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1907.

2 his above all—to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day 2hou eanst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The announcement that the Government has determined upon a comprehensive scheme for the drainage of the Piako Swamp is good news, provided that it is ably planned and pushed energetically along. As to the plan of the drainage, the Swamp has been so much discussed and is so well known by competent suveyors that the professional side of any likely proposition can be relied upon. The prospects of its steady progress are less encouraging. There is no sense in meeting trouble halfway, but we are more likely to see satisfactory work in Piako drainage if we point out the weak spot in any scheme which the Government may bringing forward, and thus endeavour to strengthen it. To place only £6,000 on the Estimates for the commencement of such a huge drainage scheme —as we understand is the intention of the Minister for Lands—does not seem to indicate any very marked intention towards energetic action. To thoroughly drain the whole of the Piako Swamp, and thus open to settlement a vast area of the finest farming land, must necessitate the expenditure of at least half-a-million sterling. This will not have to be spent at once, of course, for much of the swamp can be drained in seotions, but exceedingly little can be done with £6,000 in working out a really comprehensive scheme. If funds are not available to push the extensive work required energetically along, it will be a good many years before any noticeable results are attained. As all the expenditure of the Government will be recouped, and more than recouped, by the value of the land thus reclaimed, there is every business reason why no time should be lost when work commences, particularly as all capital lying idle through giving no return is annually costing the State its interest. We have an instance of this in the enormous sum lying practically idle in the Main Trunk, owing to the failure of the Government to push the line promptly through And there is another reason why these swamp drainage schemes should be actively conducted : there are so many of them, though none to rival the Piako in area. The Whakatane Swamp, for instance, would give about 50,000 acres of first-class land, and amply repay the cost of reclamation ; aad this is only one of a number scattered through the North, all of which will undoubtedly become in time prolific sources of national wealth and prosperity. “New Zealand Herald."