UNIFIED CONTROL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 June 1938, Page 8

UNIFIED CONTROL

IN DEALING WITH FLOOD PROBLEMS

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS. PROMISE OF METHODICAL ACTION. (“Times-Age” Special.) “I am satisfied that the system operating in New Zealand today of dealing with river erosion is comic opera and stupid in the extreme,” declared the Minister of Public Works, the Hon R. Semple, when replying to representations at a meeting of the Featherston County Council yesterday. “My view,” he added, “is that we have got to create within the Public Works Department a branch of the engineering profession that would concentrate on river and sea erosion.” In urging on the Minister the need for the unified control by a single competent authority of all river protection works in the Wairarapa, Mr B. Roberts, M.P., said that there were several river boards in the district, but generally speaking they had no money and. little equipment. If they could secure the co-operation of the Public Works Department and the local authorities, he felt it would be possible to prevent much of the serious erosion taking place and to save some of the best land in New Zealand from going down to the sea. Mr Roberts said there was one farmer at Ahiaruhe who never knew when his. caw -shed would go down stream, while two other men had lost respectively 28 and 72 acres of fertile land. There was a need for the utmost co-operation between the river boards and the county pouncils in order to prevent the tremendous destruction that was going on. THE WAIOHINE BASIN. Mr O. A. Cadwallader,' chairman of the Ahikouka River Board, referred to the difficulties encountered in dealing with erosion and flooding by the Waiohine River. The revenue from rates fell well short of the work to be done and had it not been for the county councils there was no saying where the river would have been. Very serious erosion was taking place at the present time and it was estimated that the work necessary in the vicinity of the soldiers’ settlement at Ahikouka would cost £l2OO. The rates brought in £230 and they were rated to full capacity. All the year’s rates had been spent and it would not be fair to turn round and ask settlers on 40 acre farms to tackle a £l2OO job—it would break them. There were at present two river boards along a nine or ten mile stretch of the Waiohine River and he believed that it would be a step in the right direction to unify the control of both bodies.

Mr D. McGregor said the Wairarapa South County Council was willing to do What it could to assist the settlers with plant and supervision. He agreed that the position was serious and that it would be far better to have the river controlled by one body. Mr A. B. Barton, chairman of th# Featherston County, said the council had assisted the Ahikouka River Board considerably when the main highway had been affected by the Waiohine River. When the State had taken over the highway, however, the council felt that its liability ceased. He thought there should be only one river board for the whole of the district. A NATIONAL PROBLEM.

The Minister said the river erosion problem was not peculiar to the Wairarapn but was a national one. It was a problem that had been intensified and aggravated for years. “The question of more efficient control,” he added. “is under consideration by my Department. I am satisfied that the system operating today is • comic opera and stupid in the extreme. While they have been tinkering with the problem for years, thousands of acres of fertile lands have been washed into the Pacific. That is going on more rapidly every year. “The problem is a man-made one and is principally due to the indiscriminate chopping down of the trees on our hillsides. In the years gone by if more attention had been paid to the preservation and replacement of our forests we would not have the trouble we have today. “There is a multiplicity of river boards all over the Dominion,” Mr Semple continued, “one dumping its troubles on to its neighbour and so the

stupid see-saw game goes on. Many of the so-called river protection works I have investigated have been nothing but toys. The problem has been just tinkered with instead of being tackled in a systematic and scientific manner. My view is that we have got to create within the Public Works Department a branch of the engineering profession that would concentrate on river and sea erosion problems. The root cause would have to be understood and the problem tackled at the root. It is a task for competent engineers to concentrate on. MOST BOARDS TO GO. The Minister said that in his opinion most of the river boards would have to go out of existence. They were only overlapping. It was a case of get in, get out or get under and to hell with the other fellow. That was the position all over New Zealand today. If they were not so tragic the efforts of river boards would be fit for ridicule and satire. His Department had a proposal to put before Cabinet within the next few days which would assist the soldier settlers at Ahikouka. “I say quite frankly and definitely,” the Minister added, “that these river jobs have to be tackled and tackled in a systematic and scientific manner and on a properly organised plan. If not the position will get worse as time goes on. Most of the river boards will have to go. They have no money, no plant and few ideas as to how the jobs are to be done. They have got to get out of the road and a big scheme put in hand with the co-operation of the Public Works Department and the local, authorities. z

“We will give your problems the maximum of consideration and you the maximum of help that can be given. The Government will protect your fertile lands.”

Doctor: “Was the sleeping powder effective?” Patient: “No. I scattered it all over the bed, but it did no good.”