WAIMAKARIRI-ASHLEY WATER SUPPLY.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8717, 13 February 1894, Page 3

WAIMAKARIRI-ASHLEY WATER SUPPLY.

TO THE EDfrOR dF THB PRESS. Sir, —The argument' of your correspondent " Nux " against irrigating light lands is very funny. He says—" Let the riverbed of the Waimakariri itself bear witness, which from time to time has been irrigated by floods. What does it produce in wheat crops ?" I would remind him of the old j "• •■■-■.■- ---" The man in the wilderness asked of mc How many strawberries grew in the sea. I answered him as I thought good, 'As many herrings as grow in the wood.'" But though wheat doesn't grow naturally in river beds, certain grass can be mads to grow freely on systematically irrigated land, however light, as Mr Dixon's extensive experiments have proved. I think an ounce of his practice is worth a pound of Mr " Nux'a " theory. Ido not live in the district, but I know it well, and I gather that Mr Dixon has no objection to the owners of the heavy lands irrigating their wheat crops as much as they please, so long as they pay for their own water, and do not include his land and adjoining properties, amounting altogether to about half the district, in the rateable area. He seems-,-,to.' beUeya.rightly or,wrongly (rightly, I think, judging; from the weight .of expert evidence) that instead of depending on the limited supply obtainable from the Board'B distant and costly intake, his lands and others on his side of the Eyre can only be cheaply and suitably irrigated from intakes close at hand, whose permanence he is prepared to risk, and where the terraces are comparatively low and easy. Why then should he or any other man be made liable for the cost of water which he does not consider it will pay him to take at the price? ..... ■•■•-.* .',* The Board seem tobave acted the part.of the dog in the niauger with regard to Brown's Rock intake. They prevented Mr Dixon from acquiring it ou the plea that they might require it themselves, but they have since steadily refused to utilise it. .- v;".,■■■:■. . This compulsory rating of all lands, whether the water can be economically applied or not, is a principle which affects every land-owner in this already over-rated and over-taxed country, and its injustice can only bring the cause of irrigation into disrepute. ; In the 'benefit of irrigating all lands having shingle aubsoil I thoroughly believe, but not in forcing some people to provide water for other people's use.—Yours, &c, Irrigator.