CONTROL OR PREVENTION ?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 6

CONTROL OR PREVENTION ?

It is fortunate that the Minister of Public Works visited the flooded areas in Hawke's Bay, for what he saw there obviously impressed him deeply, and when Mr. Semple is deeply impressed his feelings often find vent in positive action. In the matter of flood prevention positive action is needed, and Mr. Semple is right in concluding that it must be national action, but it is especially important that the nature of the problem should be appreciated first. Mr. Semple speaks of setting up a special branch of his Department to make a survey of the rivers and prepare a 'plan; he speaks also of superseding the existing river boards. This may be wise and necessary —although the boards could continue to be useful if they worked to a common expert plan—but Mr. Senile's words give the impression that what he wishes to create is a more efficient system of ilood control. What of flood prevention? The damage done by .flooded rivers after tfcey reach the plains is the most noticed, *rat it is only symptomatic. The causes of the flooding are to be found 'higher up, in the deforested hills. From the ' engineer's point of view, "a forest is an elaborate mechanism for the control and absorption of rainfall." When the forest is cut or burnt, the mechanism is lost. Reafforestation is a slow business, but it must be started; it may have to be supplemented, in some districts, by a system of storage