WATER CHARGES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 46, 3 December 1938, Page 9

WATER CHARGES

COSTS TO THE IRRIGATOR. * VARIES ACCORDING TO LAND. CHANGE IN SYSTEM EFFECTED. ■When the irrigation system was first launched, the chief interest of those to whose farms the water would be taken was the cost. A charge that was practically uniform was started with, but because of the varying nature of the country, hill land and that on the flats and in the valleys, it was soon apparent that a change would have to be effected. The original charge was from los to 16s an acre a.year. As stated, there was an agitation for a change, irrigators claiming that they were being asked to pay too much for the benefits received. After a great deal of discussion, tlio Government set up a Commis'sion, which went exhaustively into the question. •Members of the Commission made a thorough survey of the areas concerned and as a result they worked out a system of assessments giving the charge for the individual holdings, based on the nature of the land, the difficulty of getting water to it, and the probable benefits to be derived. The water rate was thereby reduced to 9s to 10s an acre though some of the good land in the Roxburgh scheme (not seen by the Ashburton farmers) is paying 14s an acre.

These charges, made to the Public Works Department, are just about defraying the cost of maintaining the races and the water supply. At first, the Government, it was stated, looked for a return of 4 per cent, on the capital cost of the work, but this has been limited in more recent years to 1 per cent.

Tho schemes are not a. paying proposition in themselves, but all .sections of those concerned in them recognise that there are tremendous advantages accruing indirectly. ' For instance, in the Ida Valley, where the runs were previously carrying one sheep to four acres, they are now averaging four sheep to one acre, while instances of five and six sheep to the acre are common. The Ashburton men saw paddocks that regularly carry even more than this.

Following the heavier stocking of the farms and runs, there has been a decided increase in the number of sheep sent away by rail, and the figures in regard to tho decrease in tho railway losses (quoted above) are ample proof of wliat is being done.

Water is supplied to the farmers' in

a regular supply; that is, the water is always on the farm, and they take what they require, when they require it. Net all the farmers are linked up with the irrigation channels; they commence their contributions for water as soon as they start taking supply. The influence of the old mining days remains with the people of the district, for they always call the unit of supply “a head.” Two feet of water per acre a day is termed a head, and a head is elsewhere called a cusec. Land around the Falls Dam scheme, comprising about 10,000 acres, pays 12s a day head. Last year there was very little rain and the irrigators used very much over the quota of water that has been estimated for their needs, but this spring there have been plentiful rains, one of the wettest seasons known for many years, atjd. up to the time the Ashburton party paid its visit, the irrigators had used something less than half the amount normally taken up. The sunshine experienced in the area is much stronger than that known in the County. Because so much of the land is sheltered in the basins formed by the high ranges of hills, the heat generated in the soil is many degrees higher than in the soil of the County farms, over which a steady easterly breeze generally blows. The air becomes still and hot, and tho hills shimmer in the haze which rises, and this leads

to tho remarkable growth that is to he noted on all sides.

The hours of sunshine for Alexandra for the last year totalled 2200, an average of about six hours a day. It was pointed out that the waterings at first carried out on the farms are much heavier than those put on later in the season. As the ground becomes worked up and the pastures are more firmly established, the waterings become lighter, though the applications from the races are fairly regular.

'ln many places oil the district inspected the soil is so shallow that it does not pay the owner to put the plough into it because of the stones that are turned up in the process, so the surface for the most part is merely scratched with the harrow.

There aro places where a good deal of silt is carried on to the land with the water from the races. These lead off from rivers or creeks into which the sluicing miners run the water which they use to tear down the hills, and when there is a good deal of activity on the sluicing claims, the water is thick with mud.

Some complaint is made by irrigators in regard to this, hut generally the dirty water is taken as being of ultimate benefit to the land, though at the time it goes on it leaves a very unclean pasture.

Reverting to the question of the difficulties of getting tho water to the farms, it may be stated that in numbers of cases the races have to be carried over deep gullies, and this is accomplished by means of siphoning through huge concrete lined steel pipes. Some of the valleys crossed by these siphons are more than half a mile wide. Many miles of piping is used. The pipes have only a. • limited life and heavy replacements are being carried out at the present timo,