23

I.—sb

W. GAWN

6. Do you consider that the Board can help you, and that you will get any advantage from the operations of the Board ?—Oh, no ! The Board cannot do me any good in any way. The land has already been drained, and in fact we are rather dry in that corner. We do not want too much drainage. 7. How long have you owned the land there? —I have lived there for twenty-six or twenty-seven years, I suppose. 8. Is there any difference in the drainage to-day from what there was at the time you went there—has it altered in any material way?— The drainage-course or the streams? 9. The drainage that gives the outflow for any drainage off your land? —No, it has been the same since I can remember. 10. So that you are in just the same position as regards drainage as you were twenty-six years ago ?—Thai is so. 11. You heard the evidence given by Mr. W 7 illiam Allan yesterday?— Yes. 12. Do you agree generally with what he stated? —Yes. 13. Was there any of it you took exception to?— No. I think he stated the case very clearly and very fully. 14. You have read Messrs. Lundius and Buckhurst's report?— Yes. 15. What is your opinion of it? —I think it is a very good report of the case, and I quite agree with the part where they recommend that the whole of the lands on the east side of the river should be severed from the district. 10. Do you think that would be a solution of the difficulty?— Yes, I think so. At our end of the plain we do not need any drainage, and it appears to me that at the lower end of the plain, on the east side of the river, they need drainage, but it is impossible to get it. 17. And all you desire is to be excluded from the drainage-area? —Yes. 18. When was the last of your land acquired? —I could not say exactly —perhaps five or six years ago. 19. What price did you pay for it? —£24 10s. That was one section without any buildings on it. 20. When that land was bought you could have bought land at different places? —Yes. 21. Was the value given to that land by any special circumstances? —The land was well drained. It also had the Mill Creek flowing through it, which was certainly an advantage. 22. And you paid a high price for that land as it then stood? —Yes. 23. Was there any talk of an Act then being passed to drain the land? —Yes, I think there was at that time. It was about this time, I fancy, that this business started. 24. Well, you bought the land before that when there was no talk of any Act? —Yes. My father bought all the land he has there at high values. The first of it, I suppose, he bought twentyeight years ago. 25. How do you consider it will be affected by the Drainage Board's operations as far as the value of the land'is concerned ?—Well, I consider that the reduced value of the land would exceed the rates that we are paying on it. Of course no Drainage Board can do the land any good in any way. It is already fully drained. 26. Mr. Guthrie.] When you bought that land did you expect to be drawn into the drainagearea? —No. 27. Did you expect that the water would do any damage to the land below you?— No. 28. Did you expect that, if any Drainage Board were formed and any area formed, you would be brought into it?— Well, tit that" time, although there may have been talk about it, we did not take the matter seriously, and we never thought of being taken into a drainage-area. 29. Because you did not expect any advantage from being in a drainage-area ?—There is no advantage to be gained by our being in a drainage-area. 30. And you did not expect to do others any damage from your land?— Certainly not. 31. The Chairman.] There has been some talk about the Silverstream in flood-time. The distance that the Silverstream is from the river would lead me to suppose that the Silverstream flood would be pretty well over before the Otago Central flood could come down off the hills from the Silver Peaks—before the Dunstan flood would come?—No, Ido not think that is the case. So far as my experience goes, the two floods arc pretty often at the same time. 32. But when it is a general rain they both come together? —Yes. 33. One has to travel about sixty miles, and the other not more than sixteen or twenty miles? —That is so. 34. Mr. Do you know the New Cut that has been spoken of?—No, Lcannot say that. I know anything about the country down there. I have seen it. 35. Is the New Cut passing through shingle?—lt is passing through land of which the subsoil is shingle, but where the cut is made, it is so many years ago that the willows which were planted are holding the banks, and it is impossible for any land to get away now. 36. What is the condition of the cut now as regards the size as compared with what it was when made? —It has deepened considerably since I have known it, but it is no wider. I. could not tell you the exact measiirement of it. There is no flooding on the plain from that end of the Silverstream at all. 37. Wherever a scour has taken place there, they say the scour has caused the damage down below? —I do not think there has been any scour from the cut, Any deepening that takes place now does not take any gravel with it—it takes the clay ;it has got beyond the gravel. 38. Is there gravel up above?—l suppose there will be. It is gravel all up through the hills. [Sketch-plan produced and put in showing the proportion of the Silverstream catchment-area as compared with the drainage-area.] (Close of petitioners' case.)