The Press. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1893. WAIMAKARIRI-ASHLEY WATER SUPPLY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8593, 21 September 1893, Page 4

The Press. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1893. WAIMAKARIRI-ASHLEY WATER SUPPLY.

The Waimakariri - Ashley Water Supply Board have nob yet supplied any water, but they have supplied us with a " blue book," full of correspondence and engineering reports, setting forth in detail the origin and history of their quarrel with Mr. Dixosr.' We cannot help thinking that the production of this volume is a bad sign. " Deeds not words" should be the motto of any local body entrusted with the execution of public works. It is nearly three years since a meeting of representatives of the five Eoad Boards

interested was held at Rangiora to discuss the supply of the district with water from the JRiver Waimakariri. There has been plenty of discission ever since but very little work. Possibly that is not the fault of the present Board. Probably they contend it ia the fault of Mr. Dixosr. That gentleman, who apparently owns about a third of the whole district, seems from the reports to bava vacillated much in his opinions, and to have crude and fantastic ideas as to the method of estimating the discharge of water-races and the cost of making them. But then he is nob an Engineer, although he has done much private irrigation. We think the Board need not have thrown upon

him the onus of preparing data for a scheme whioh was proposel bona fid* for irrigation. Thereby this Brown's Rocks scheme was brought iuto needless contempt, and a good deal of misunderstanding and waste of time was caused. When Mr Dixon did employ a qualified engineer to investigate the several schemes for him, the Board seem to have refused to give him any information, nor would they receive Mr Wilwams's report, though ii» was certainly not one-sided, but. contained some suggestions for settling the whole question amicably, which we strongly endorse.

Mr Dixon, doubtless then, caused much of the delay, and is still obstructive to the Rock Ford scheme, but the Board are responsible for the delay to the ratepayers. We are afraid that indifference among the majority of them to the enormous benefite to be obtained by irrigation is the real cause at work. Herein lies what we consider a useful public example of one of the difficulties which may beset anybody initiating a public irrigation scheme. If other future Water Supply Boards learn a lesson, the time so far has not been all wasted. The difficulty is this : how can the Water Board hope to estab-

lish a satisfactory irrigation echeme unless the landowners themselves are equally desirous of irrigation water ? Moreover, unless the conditions of the soil and tillage are all equal on the various farms, it must be impossible to give general satisfaction on the basis of an acreage rate, even supposing the farmers to be all equally in want of the water. Considering the patchy nature of the soil and the varying conditions of cultivation which exist side by side in most districts in this country we cannot conceive of any just method of charging irrigation water except on the basis of every settler paying bj measure for bis actual consumption, subject of course to a fixed maximum supply so as to meet all requirements. Wβ think if this principle were laid down a good deal of confusion and misunderstanding would be avoided, and the ground cleared for business. In the present Water Board District we find there are some who require water for stock only and care little for irrigation ; others there are whose land is well tilled, who look to partial irrigation as a convenient help in dry seasons; but a considerable minority, including Mr. Dixon, who own that half of the district which is between the Eyre and Waimakariri, are earnestly anxious for abundance of water throughout most of the year. The land in this portion is so dry and porous, and withal so exceedingly poor, that no system save that of flooding it wholesale and distributing the water by ploughed carriers can be of any avail. Wβ doubt if any parti of the world affords an instance of irrigation applied to a lighter soil or more porous subsoil. Anyone who visits thia country during heavy rains can see, by the absence of any standing water immediately after rain, that it has the main characteristic of a sieve. Mr. Dixon has proved that suitable coarse grasses can be grown on this barren soil by abundant watering, but it musb be very many years before it arrives at such a state of one cubic foot of water per second will suffice for two or three hundred acres ac is the case in some countries which have been highly cultivated for years with cereals or fruit trees, and where the land is of great value..The Water Supply Board's scheme only affords ona cubic foot per second to 640 acres. We notice thab their consulting engineer claim 3 that thia quantity amouuta to 30 inches of rainfall on 105 square miles; but as the whole district contains 240 square miles, every; one of which might) require its turn of irrigation during some very dry month, ib follows that the irrigation supply only amounts to 13 inches over the whole district, and, therefore, about one inch only during the month when the extra moisture is really needed on account of drought. One inch of rain per month is really little better than supplying one wet afternoon in that time, and it is simply a farce to call it irrigation for the light lands in question.

The faot is, aa Mr. Williams points out in his report, the Hoard's JRock Ford scheme is neither one thing nor the other; it is far moro costly than is necessary for supplying ample -water for etock and what we may call kitchefy garden irrigation practised in the Selwyn county, and in cannot provide anything approaching a satisfactory irrigation supply for the light lauds, the requirements of which seem to have been ignored. The scheme may probably suffice to suit the better cul-! tivated farms lying mostly north of the Eyre, & n d is the only one which commands the upper portion of the district; but then it seems to us only fair that those who desire this scheme should pay for it. All the evidence, including both Mr. Cuthbbbi's and Mr. Wilijams's repbrtSj points to the fact that Brown's Kocka afford the most favourable intake fojr economically the district below Burnt Hill and south of the Eyre Biver. It is estimated that if Mr.sjDixoN's present head works were taken over by a Water Board, as well as a supply obtainable from Brown's Rocks, the toial amount of 400 cubic feet per second, or one cubic foot to only 175 acre 3, would be available for about £9000. On the other hand, the Board's scheme would cost £31,000 plus the allowance of £9000 extra for suitable slopes, which undoubtedly ought to be reckoned as part of the first cost. Thus, this part; of the district; would have to pay nearly half the sum of £40,000 for obtaining only one-fourth the quantity of water per acre which they should obtain for £9000 by their own adjacent intakes. Under the circumstances it seems to us that the conditions of the two portions of the district are so opposite tbac the only satisfactory settlement lies in separation; the Southern portion being either under a separate Board with separate jurisdiction and rating power, or else under a brauch Board having full control of all water courses and levying its own rates Via the sub-district. We caunot do| the settlers in the more highly cultivated lands the injustice of Buppo»ng that they wish to obtain their faifoarite scheme at the expense of those? settlers on the poor and thirsty lanfs which can be irrigated much mofe efficiently at a lower cost by aa independent scheme.