RIVER CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 16

RIVER CONTROL.

EROSION PROBLEM. "BOARDS HAVE TO GO." STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (By Telepraph.—rress Association.) WELLINGTON-, Tuesday. The Government's intention to give all possible assistance to repair flood damage on <l\o East Coast was mentioned by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in reply to a deputation from the Wairoa County Council which waited upon him to-dav*. After hearing the representations, the Minister re" f erred to the enormous amount of expenditure made necessary in the past two years through flooding in various parts of the Dominion. Rivers had been allowed to get out of control and thousands of acres of fertile land had been swept into the sea. No data had been gathered to give the Public Works Department a full knowledge of the cost and effect of river erosion, said the Minister. Little river boards had been set up all over the country, and each one was blaming the other. "There has got to be a eomprcsensive survey of -all these rivers and the job must be tackled in a systematic and scientific way," he continued. ''The only way, in my opinion, is to set up a branch of the Public Works Department with competent engineers in charge, to make this survey and prepare a plan, so that we can tackle the job properlv in order of the urgency of works. And we will follow the thing right through until the remedy is applied from the national point of view. Effect of Earthquake. "I have conferred with my best engineers, ind they agree with* me on the question. River boards have got to get out of the road." Mr. Semple went on to refer to the recent Hawke's Bay floods and the contributing effect the earthquakes in 1931 Jiad had in loosening hillsides and allowing them to become water-logged and slip away into the valleys. An unfortunate feature of the floods was that the worst form of silt which covered the pastures feet deep was on top and the land would be of little value for a long time. The whole thing was a major disaster, but the Government would not run away from the job. A rough estimate of the damage to highways, other roads and railways was about £400,000, and'there was * besides the present and prospective damage done to farmlands, which could not be estimated because of hillsides being laid bare. The Government was considering ways and means of rehabilitating the area and it would not run away from any problem, no matter how bisr.' The reopening of the road between Napier and Wairoa by the Public Works Department constituted a reqord for that type of work, said Mr. Semple. With old-fashioned methods it would have taken months to do what had taken weeks. The Mohaka Viaduct end the Mohaka emergency landing ground had both played an important part in the work, otherwise some people iflight have starved to death. The counties had given their full co-operation. Estimates of Damage. It was estimated that the damage to Hawke's Bay county roads was £14.000, said the Minister, and he had a proposal ready to submit to the cotinty when it was approved bv the Minister of Finance. In the ease'of the Wairoa County the damage to ordinary highways and county roads was estimated at £.14,000. The county had been the first in New Zealand to give its cooperation to the live-year plan for improved' baekblock roads, and it now said that without assistance from the Government it would have to abandon its part in the plan. He did not want the] county to do that, and could give an assurance that the maximum amount of help would be given by the Government. He would give a decision to Mr. E. L. Ctillen, M.P. for Hawke's Bay, in a day or two. On the question of labour for the work, Mr. Semple said there were men available in other parts of Xew Zealand, and they would have to go to the East Coast if necessary. A man on the unemployment register had to go where he was sent and where work was in the I national interest. If he did not he would get nothing.