FLOOD HAVOC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1938, Page 4

FLOOD HAVOC

HEAVY DAMAGE TO LANDS DURING YEAR MINISTER ON PROTECTION PLANS. ACTION BY LOCAL BODIES URGED. “It is regrettable that this year the country has been visited by frequent and unprecedented floods, bringing much damage and loss of life to both the Government’s and local bodies’ works,” the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) observes in his annual Statement. “In the Napier and Gisborne districts floods of a height and magnitude far beyond the memory of any living man have caused untold damage. The effect of these floods is unbelievable to one who has not seen them. In addition to wholesale damage to roads, railways, and bridges, large areas of fertile country have been utterly destroyed. “In other districts the damage is not so great, and I would impress upon a]l local bodies the necessity of not depending on the Government when there is a reasonable, and justifiable , demand upon their own resources. If they do this, then the Government will be in a better position to help those who have suffered damage far beyond their power to restore. “Serious thought has been given to systematic control of rivers that are, or are likely to be, dangerous. The matter is one of vital importance to this country. It has only been for want of suitable staff, due to the large amount of work already in hand by the department, that progress has not been made to the extent I should like to have seen. “On the works now in hand there is still a shortage of engineering staff, and after exhaustive inquiries, both in New Zealand and Australia, the department has been quite unable to obtain the services of more engineers. I find, therefore, much as I would like to have set up a special branch of the department to undertake investigations and make surveys for river-control, I have so far been unable to do so. The matter is one, however, that I shall continue to press, and I am in hopes of doing more at an early date. The first procedure will be to collect data and make.surveys for protective works in their order of urgency. Some work was done this year by utilising the services of one of the department’s engineers who has had considerable experience in river-control work. He will be retained on this work.”