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Hikurangi Drainage Area (50,000 Acres), Whangarei County No work was carried out in this area. Waiiij Drainage Area (20,000 Acres), Tauranga County During the period of thirteen months between Ist March, 1943, and the 31st March, 1944, 46 miles 67 chains of main drains have been cleaned by manual labour. In this district the acute shortage of labour has made the maintenance of drainage-works a difficult matter, and much-needed improvement work has had to be deferred. No. 32 Huston Bucyrus Excavator commenced work on the Kaikokopu Stream on the 23rd April, 1943, but after removing 1,300 cubic yards of silt from a 14 chain reach, work had to be discontinued because of the illness of the driver, and the plant was used by the Public Works Department for defence work, and repairing Hood damage at Tauranga. It has always been known that a considerable portion of the swamp inland from the Waihi Estuary would require pumping for drainage, and a small land-drainage pump has been used for some years to drain an area of 460 acres at the junction of the Kaikokopu and the Wharere Canal. As the result of the gradual subsidence of the peat, the occupied area now requiring mechanical drainage has extended to the south side of the Waerenga Road. Survey records show that there has been a gradual subsidence due to drainage of 4 ft. to 5 ft. in this area between 1908 and 1928, and 1 ft. to 2 ft. since 1928. Inquiries into the possibility of installing additional pumps are now in progress. An area of 930 acres in this district is served by a high-pressure pumped water-supply. The rainfall at Pongakawa during 1943 was 45-26 in. Expenditure and Rates. —Net maintenance expenditure, £1,347. Rates struck: Special, £762; general, £924. Rates collected, including arrears: Special, £954; general, £912. Poukawa Drainage Area (15,567 Acres), Hawke's Bay Maintenance work at a net cost of £351 was carried out during the year, and I am again indebted to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Napier, for the preparation and inspection of drain-cleaning contracts, and payments made to contractors. Rates struck: Special, £1,033; general, £321. Rates collected, including arrears: Special, £629; general, £188. No progress has been made regarding Native rates in this area. I have, &c., R. L. Innis, Chief Drainage Engineer. The Under-Secretary for Lands, Wellington. STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS A statement of accounts is published in parliamentary paper 8.-l [Pt. IV].

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