Hungahunga Drainage Board.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43385, 7 November 1908, Page 2

Hungahunga Drainage Board.

OFFICIAL RATE PAYERS’ MEETING

The official ratepayers’ meeting of the Hungahuuga Drainage Area? stipulated by the act, wasuield at Aratlatia on 3rd November, tkerq being a representative attendance. The Chairman/T. Hamm in his opening address explained the financial positionjof the Board at the present time, there being £s(fo yet to draw of the subsidy which would be absorbed in squaring accounts artd paying for contracts already) in hand. The Chairman proceeded t 6 give ajbrief summary of the doings of the Boat’d since its inception, pointing but it wiis just about 2 A years since the election oi the first Board, and it would be 2 years on the 19th inst. since the poll was taken/giving authority to raise the first loan. /On that occasion a loan of £3,000 wife [obtained and by the use of a little diplomacy a subsidy of £2,000 was also lobftaine.l from the Government. Out \crf that sum there were 22 miles of Wutlets constructed with an avera ’e cost Uf £2 11s per chain. He defended the aoti'ijri of the Board and their engineer and niid it was mi easy matter to criticise weak when finished at any time, but espec ally so in drainage works in swamp lands, which when drained subsided so qtlickly that it was an easy matter to c( met along and point out that the drain should have been here or there as the case may be. It wus always the motive jo f the oard to place the outlets in the lowest)possible places compatible with ruining U fairly straight drain. The old theory of running sinuous, toltuous trains [(except where the creeks wore clearly confine l) was becoming exploded, and he (instanced the drainage / district aroundv Cambridge,

where the Fencoftrt Drainage ±soara found it necessary to abandon the old serpentine drains and had c\it a straight drain instead. H?e said they, had gone carefully into the costs of each drain with their engineer and -found it imperative to raise another loan of £4,000 to complete the drainage scheme, Avhich they had entered into to thoroughly drain the Hungapunga and adjacent blocks. At present! it was neither drained oy undrainecu and he dilated upon the advantages to pe derived by the carrying of the loan proposal, nop only would it be .to the advantage of gvery one in the district to have/£4,000 Or £5,000 expended in then' midst in sucjh returnable work, but the good results that would accrue when this* splendid valley of fertile land was brought under cultivation and pasture, especially to the dairying industry, would more than double the output from each mctpry and boom the towns as well. Too {cheapness of the money was another which should be considered. The 3lf per cent which was ch rged woukggo to pay off the principal as well as the interest, In no other manner could money |be procured at such low rates, and if; ratepayers were studying their own interest and the interests of the whole district they would use every effort to carry the poll. The £4,000 would load their land about Us per acre and every one w ould ,admitUho/jsialts derivable from the expondjsSgl'o drapnit sum in such excellent work Awffiid fmghce the value of their laxid from3\to acre. The expenditure of the previous loan had had this effect.l A point\that should not be overlooked he soid was the fact that it would cost the ratepayers almost as much if the loafl was not obtained as it wouid if it word, for this reason : At present the interest on previous loan and the working expenses? are covoaed \by the general rate, but if the 'loan was not carried the Board be compelled to strike a special Kite to pay interest on the first loan and use the generalVate in paying working expenses, maintenance, 1 of outlets, etc. The loan has Been provisionally granted by the Government and a subsidy of £IOOO has bJen applied for in connection with it, and he felt confident it would be obtained in consideration of the Board taking in the Piranui settlers as they ;were nearly all Crown tenants. He would like to point out in conclusion that if the poll was not carried on this occasion another could not be taken fdr at least two years, so therefore it behoved every ratepayer to study the welfare lo| his district! and do his duty. He would* declare thatja poll be taken on the 20th of Novem - ber jit Waihou, Aratiatia, and WiYharqa, for jtlie ,purpose of obtaining authority from the ratepayers to raise a loan of £4,000 as specified by notices appearing in the local papers.