THE WAIMAKARIRI.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18457, 11 August 1925, Page 12

THE WAIMAKARIRI.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —It must "be about sixty years since the Waimakariri river came down on Christehureh, and what a feeling of dread disaster remained in the minds of many early settlers. The City down in a hole, with the river eight miles out on a level with the top of the Cathedral spire, goes on its progressive way to the next hundred thousand at the rate of, say, five thousand in population a year. Luckily the Kiver Trust, under a capable engineer, is anticipating trouble, and defences are being raised against this formidable invader, so that the ten thousand or more pianos in the City and suburban areas may not have to be hoisted above flood level, or share the fate of the Gore pianos when the Mataura broke its banks somo years ago.

A look at the mountains and hills snowed from bases to summits, and then the ever-present query starts up: "What would happen with two,or three days of warm rain on that mighty accumulation of snow?" And then other questions hustle one on top of another. What is Christehureh . doing besides paying its substantial rate, to counteract the filling-up of the bed in the lower levels near Kaiapoi? Should the river be "canalised" straight to the sea? Could work be found for the unemployed in securing supplies of sand and shingle for concrete? Could stores of standardised blocks be moulded ready for house building? Some time ago in your columns an engineer advocated such utilities. With riverbeds full of gorse and broom, the river might play strange pranks. la the City watchful? —Yours, etc.,

F. J. ALLEY.