The Piako Swamp.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43211, 6 August 1907, Page 2

The Piako Swamp.

SUGGESTIONS OF A VISITOR. AN EXAMPLE FROM SIAM. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Some interesting observations regarding the proposal to drain the Piako Swamp wore made to a Wellington interviewer by Mr John H, Lindsay, a native of New Zealand, a surveyor by profes sion, 'end who has just returned to the colony from Siam, in which country he spent seven years. Mr Lindsay said he had just come down from the North, and he had come through the Thames and the Waikato. He had taken an especial interest in the proposal to reclaim the Piako Swamp, which he had again visited, after many years’ absence, and because be had seen enormous areas of swamp reclaimed in Siam.

He thought the Government was wise in its attitude towards the Piako Swamp, and would be well rewarded for its enterprise, but he was afraid a mistake was about to be made in going abcut the work. He understood that scoops were to be used, and judging by some figures he had seen quoted for the work, the Government was going in for needlessly heavy" expenditure. Asked whether he had any proposal to make the visitor rehearsed his experi ences of Siam. There the Government required the reclamation of a swamp some 9UO square miles in extent. Dutch experts wen obtained from Java by a company which was given the concession. This swamp area was about 17 miles from Bangkok Much time and money were spent in experimenting upon the cutting of the ditches or canals for the draining of the swamp, but at last the perfect system was struck. Machineiy, perfected as the work progressed, was obtained from Germany, and it was the marvel of a lifetime to See the wonders performed by that machinery. Eight great automaticexcavators were employed, and each, in 24 hours, scooped out a 200 ft length of canal, 30ft to 40ft wide, and lOJffc deep. The excavators were run ou rails, which also carried the living quarters for the many coolies employed. Mr Lindsay added that the concession had just been completed, and he felt sure the excavators could be secured for work in New Zealand- “ What your Government should do in this matter,” he said, “ is to get a tip top expert from that big job over there, and get him to bring the machinery with him. There is nothing better in the world for that.sort of work than the machinery used in the Siamese swamp, audit is just the thing for the Piako country. The soil scooped out. was levelled off and went to form roads alongside the drainage cauals ; but if Piako is to be seriously and-economically tackled, your Government must get an expert reclamation engineer, and you will be astonished at the cheapness with which the work can be do~e if it is gone about in the Siamese method, even making allowance for the difference in coolie and white labour markets. It is my firm conviction that there is a great thing in the reclamation of the Piako Swamp if the work is rightly tackled.”