Waitoa Drainage Matters

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4418, 1 June 1909, Page 3

Waitoa Drainage Matters

(To (he Editor) Sir, —This most complex and all’ important question is once again before us, this time in a more concrete form, as the proposal to borrow £6,000 is now advertised in the local papers. As a Waitoa ratepayer. I have watched the doings of the Waitoa Drainage Board from its first inception with great interest and with no small degree of dissatisfaction, at the light hearted manner they appear to view the saddling of the whole of the drainage area with a £6,000 loan ; I think Mr Chairman and Co. require to be very carefully watched, or we will find ourselves unduly rated as a form of security to cover this huge unnecessary amount. What do we want with this £IO,OOO, or even £6,000 loan for our part of the drainage area '! We do not require more than a third of that amount, and I will point out my reasons for holding this opinion. It will be remembered that tome seven years ago this Waitt a estate was subdivided into small holdings of various sizes, and sold at prices varying according to each '••ectionsadv nt:iges)siu h as mading f- clirie , draim.g.-, proximity to railway station, and • eneral state of cultivation, and • those settlers who took up these (sections naturally had to pay

accoringly to the above advantages. Now we all know that the major portion of the Waitoa Estate was brought into its present productive condition by a scheme of drainage laid out by an engineer of gi eat repute and who has since carrried out many such successful schemes in other parts of New Zealand, and during the time that the Estate was

managed by the Assetts Realization Board this scheme of drainage proved its worth and that portion of the block, under review, was at all times of the

year kept free from water, but bear in mind the fact that the drains were attended to each fall of the year and thoroughly cleaned out, which is far different from what has obtained for the last six years, and the Ohine Creek was always the first drain to be started upon.

If these drains have done good work in the past why can they not do good woik again ? and I am quite sure that it would not take more than a third of the amount mentioned in the engineer’s scheme to efficiently improve the present drains and thoroughly chain that part of the block effected by this old original scheme.

'fhs Drainage Board by asking us to vote for a loan of £6,000 are asking us to load ourselves with the opening up of a vast area of undrained swamps, lying to the west side of No. 8 and a portion to the west side of No. 7 Roads. This undrained area was no doubt bought up at a cheep rate, while we paid full value for our improved sections owing to their advantages, as I have already mentioned, and I fail to see why we should now be asked to bear any part of the cost of making this land productive.

What do we want with, or got to do with the draining on this large area when we have a good system in vogue at the present time, and a system that will serve all purposes with a little alteration ? We don’t want it at all. Very few of us know as to what the present drains are capable of doing, as we have never seen the drains thoroughly cleaned out, and I think that it would be a wise thing on our part to wait until the Piako County Council have completed their drainage operations before we launch out in a £6,000 loan proposal, as we would then bo in the position to judge properly how we are effected by the cleaning up of these drains. Have nottthe Piako County Council recently accepted a large sum of money from the Bank of New Zealand to carry out roading operations and we all know that the roads cannot be forme I without the necessary road drains!" Then what on earth are the Drainage Board thinking about by moving to take the control of the roads out of the hands of tbo Council ?

It is hardly a likely thing that the Council are going to forego the control of the roads without a strenuous fight, and the consequence will be that we will find ourselves in the Law Courts and this will cost a lot of money, and while such is going on we are getting no further ahead, and will only be heaping up a larger overdraft. With reference to the two schemes, I think that the Council’s scheme is the cheapest one for us to support, and us they are going cn with it, that scheme is the one that is going to serve us first, and T consider that it will be quite time enough for us to talk about the amount of money we will require to raise for improving the present drains when the Council have finished their draining contracts.

With respect to making the road drains a means of dealing with the drainage cf the estate I think that the sooner the Board and their engineers abandon this idoa the sooner we will have the necessary money raised to carry on when the Council have finished their scheme. liv the Board and their engineers ailvo-

eating the opening no of an outlet on the No. 7 Road, all engineering principle-; arc bring departed from, ,:is tlm road traverses for tue greater part on the top of a ridge, and what possible advantage w uld be derived from utilising an outlet in such an elevated position ? This outlet should be to the west side of this road in the low lying country. With reference to the £(1000 loan, we do no want such a large sum. but perhaps the landowners to the west side of the wateished would like to have us vote this amount, but that is their business, to get it if they can, and our business is to see to our own requirements. We no doubt will be asked to vote for £6OOO loan at no distant dato, and my advice to all those settlers who are going to derive benefit out of the County Council’s operations, is to vote against such a large order. We have been told that a general rate ou the capital value of the rateable area will be struck, and the land will be classified afterwards.

I must say that this is a ver}- shortsighted view to take of the matter, and I consider that it is a slur on the intelligence of the Waitoa settlers, for it would bo a very likely thing for uny level headed man to first incur the liib lily, and then see how it affects him afterwards. I tLink that this portion of the Board’s business has been very badly managed indeed. To my mind, the Board have put the cart before the horse in this instanoo. The more businesslike way to go about this loan proposal would have been for the Board to instruct their engineers to make a general survey of the whole of the drainage area, and submit their proposals to the Board, who could then have disoussed the various outlets as shown on the plans. They could have then called a meeting of tho whole;of the ratepayers, and encouraged an open discussion on tho whole quostion. The ratepayers could then instruct their representatives—that is the Board—by resolution to proceed to work to raise tho necessary money for the requirements, after first clasiifving the lands. Then the Beard would have been on sound lines, and it is my opinion that this will yet have to be done before the Board will be able to raise the necessary amount to go to work.

We have also been told that after the land.has been classified, and if we are not satisfied we can go before a magistrate and protest against the assessment, But my experience of such a procedure has been that one gets very little consolation, and I think it would be better to first make sure of how one stood before incurring a liability of this magnitude. By proceeding on the lines adopted by the Board I am afraid that there arc rocks ahead, and if the Chairman can steer his barque clear of those, it will be a credit to him, but I prognosticate tbat his barque will spring a leak, and go to the bottom with all hands, captain and crew, but I am not prepared to say whether it will be to the bottom of the Piako or the Waitoa that the ill-fated barque is doomed to end its days.

I do not want to pose as a pessimist, but I am going to take all sorts of tine care that the Chairman and Co a"o not gr ing to lead us into Luge proposals of this kind when it is not necessary for our portion of the drab age area T' anking you, Mr ( oilor, n mtici: ation of your allowing me so much of your valuable space, I am, etc,, Week Foot.