SWAMP RECLAMATION IN WAIKATO.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1610, 28 October 1882, Page 4

SWAMP RECLAMATION IN WAIKATO.

T«B very large amount of swamp reclamntion at present going on in the Waikato, Piako and Waitoa districts, must in the course of a few years tell its tale in the progress of this part of the provincial district, by giving so many more thousands of acres into the hands of the tillers of the soil which at the present moment produce nothing better than flax, ti-tree, and rushes. In the Waitoa distiiottho Auckland Agricultural Compuiy .ire actively engaged in draining a swamp some 18,000 aeies in extent, the diainsofwhioharebeingrun systematically under pioper engineering supervision, past cxpeiiciice having fully demonstrated the fact that the old happy golucky style of draining, w Inch consisted in simply looking at a swamp and putting the outfalls in wlicie the surface looked low, docs not pay at any price. Very many miles of drains have already been cut and tendons ate now being invited for some £3000 worth of work in addition. It is intended, I believe, to sell tint, estate in small sections when thoroughly leclaimcd, and with this object in view the proprietary are making roads at the sides of several of the main drains, with stufl iiom the bottom of the same and from the dry lands which ciop up on sevcial places through the swamp. This Waitoa swamp dill'cis considerably from most other swamps in Waikato, not being nearly so deep, and consequently is easier to thy, ami a large quantity of it ■will undoubtedly be of great value for graying purposes. A large stop-bank has been put up hcie to pi event the liver ■Waitoa o\ei flowing the low lying lands, but last winter's flood dcmonstiatcd the fact that it is neither long enough, nor high enough, the water ha\ing washed it away once or t\\ ice, but this fault u ill no doubt be remedied before the next wet season. A large area of Met lands is being bi ought in by the Grant and Foster settlers, and by the settlers on the Government lands at To Aroha, and further extensive operations <uc mentioned at Hunga Hunga and Waiharakeke, and many people are ol opinion that in the course of ten yeais a swamp in this district Mill bo a rauty. Next in order, going low aids the Piako, comes the swamp ot Meiers J. and (J. Gould, which is of good quality, and which is coining in by dcgieus, but very little has been done in the. way of systematic drainage. Mr W. A. Muuay possesses a laige extent of swamp, and is reclaiming it slowly, but siuely, and to sco his paddocks from the load as you lide along shows how excellent the land is. They look splendid, and he has had wonderfully good ciops off them of oats, turnips, &c. That time is one of the greatest essentials to swamp dunning has been proved by this gentleman, w ho tiicd to grow ciops on the swamp immediately on its coming in, but in some instances did not get anything worth hai vesting. Now tho same land is A 1. Messrs Mori in and .Studholme arc paying attention to their swamp land now, and will .soon l eap the benefit of it, as a laige portion is of ihst-class quality. Mr Jenkins, Mho pin chased his land horn the Mes^is Momn, owns one of the very best bits oi swamp in the country. He has diaiued i\ large portion of it, and is bunging moie in every year. Next door to this land comes the Waikato Land Association, better known as the Piako Swamp Company, which name, by thejw ay, wasalways a gieat nuisance, as nowheie does their propei ty e\en touch on tho PiaUoihoror Piako distiiet pioper. They posses the largest swamp in the pio\incial district, I suppose, it being some sixteen miles long and perhaps eight wide. This swamp has become a household woid in our midst, and the amount of woik done on it is peifectly astounding, consideiing that it lias only been going on some seven years or a little over. Scoics of mika of diaius of all si/cs h.no been cut, many of which ha\e almost disappcaicd with the giadual subsidence of the surface, and in places one is shown a deptession in the giound, and told that that was originally ;i four lout or a six foot duun. Fancy «i drain nine miles long, l mining into another which continues on l omo Jho or six miles tin ther, and then lancy se\eral of these with sniallei amis, stioldiiny f.u and wide, miles upon miles in length, and 3 ou Ciin f oini some idea of what has been done. And then to think tli.it all this work would be thrown away as peifectly useless, it was not to be follow ed up by even moie than has been aheady done; for,|notwithstandiug all these duiins, the sw amp is still in a pel fectly waste condition except lound the outei edges, m here for some little distance in it has commenced to consolidate. l(1orl (1 or se\eial years it was thought by many (indeed by all) that this .swamp was bottomless , and that "nc 1 . ci " would it be loclaimod fiom end to cud ; for it is well known that until solid bottom is leaclied no thoiough reclamation of a swamp can take place, but foitun.itoly for the piopiietois, and foitunately, too, for the whole diotuct, it has lately been demolish atud that the long-looked foi bottom can l>o got, and that within a depth snihuentl.y lcasonablo to admit oi the whole aiea being biought in. It is now pietty clear that from l"2to H feet diainsw ill icach the solid clay, and the drains can be cauicd down the leqniied depth in the toui^e of two oi thice yeais. It must be undei stood by the uninitiated that it is not judicious to go down too deep at one time in these swamps. If chains, are cut too deep the immense pressure of water causes them to cave in in all diiections. It theicforc loonies necessary to give the swamp time to chain its'jl't, a few feet at a time, so that nuney shall not be wasted in doing woik o\er again. It is, 1 understand, the intention of tho company to proceed actively w ith the woik ot " bottoming up" wheie ready for it, and preparing for this wheie not yet icady, so that befoie many yeais aie past we may expect to see the pluck ,md cneigy of the piopiietois rewaidcd. Pluck and energy they ceitainly have shown, but all tins ■would have been Useless unless backed up with enounous capital, and had it lemained for small settleis to chain the land, neither wo nor our childien, nor our grandchildren would have seen what I and others hope to see eie we aie many yeais older — that is, w r hee!ed \ chicles traversing the quaudam desert horn end to end. hi the Moanatuatua swamp a veiy laige amount of woik has been done, and with great success, many thousand acres having been leclaimed, and work done year by ycir, the whole face of the country having wonderfully altered since Messrs Walkei and Douglas litst took up the lavd — or, as it was. mostly water. In tließukuhia&w,iiiip (rlon. Jas. Williamson) a large amount of woik has been done, but it has not gone far enough, and, consequently, but a small portion of the area has been reclaimed. Very little, it any, drainage has been done bince Mr Cox left the district, and until the same system is cauicd out here as that adopted in othei places of the same sort, that is, getting the bottom and keeping it, no tangible results Mill follow. This swamp has, perhaps, more out-falls than -my other huge one m the district, but the happy-go-luckly style I mentioned above was too much resorted to when operations were first started. A very largo amount of diainage has been done in the above-named districts on a smaller scale than those mentioned, the principal being, I think, at Fen Court (Auckland Agricultural Company) where some forty miles of drains exist, a good many of them, too, coming under the ** happy-go-lucky" head. It is the intention too, I hear, of the settlers round the Ngaroto lakes to go in for lowering tliese lakes and reclaiming all their swamp lands, which are of splendid quality, if dry. Mr T. G-. Sandes, a surveyor who has had a very large experience in these matters, has proposed a scheme to those interested, and it will in all probability be carried oufc during the coming summer under his superintendence. From the foregoing it will, I thiuk, ( t be acknowledged that these swariip reclamations' form a most importaniffeature in the progress of this district, which will go a long way to, assist

the developing of Auckland city into ' what she is eventually bound to become — the first .amongst tkc groat centres of population in New Zealand. 1 have, therefore, considered it sufficiently interesting to the public generally to give them a little iiifoimatiou on a subject, which, if moist enough in carrying out the details, might be considered too diy for every-day reading.— (A Cone*pondent.)