The Press Tuesday, March 9, 1926. The Waimakariri.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18635, 9 March 1926, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, March 9, 1926. The Waimakariri.

Most people in Canterbury, probably, are agreed updh the necessity that something should be done to arrest the damage which results from an uncontrolled, or, insufficiently controlled, "Waimakariri, and to prevent the calamity of a flood which might reach Christehurch. These two ends, it ought to be borne in mind, are quite distinct and separate. It has never been demonstrated that such a monster flood as might temporarily inundate wider areas of North Canterbury than have hitherto actually received the flood waters would ever endanger the City, nor has it been shown that the safety of the City requires more than some comparatively inexpensive protective measures. In a matter of so much importance, where a very expensive programme may in a large degree depend upon the position of the City, action should be based less upon legend and conjecture than upon such facts as can be ascertained by the sur--1 veyor's instruments. Few would deny the possibility that flood waters from the Waimakariri might reach the City, but a great many people will be unwilling to admit that the safety of the City requires nothing less than one of the costly plans considered by the River Trust. That is to say, there is no secure warrant for asking the City to believe thai; its safety requires the adoption of the plan for the execution of which the Trust proposes to raise a loan Of-some two hundred thousand pounds. There is also abundant reason for' doubting whether the protection of the lands adjoining the river along the last twenty miles of its bourse can be most economically and effectively secured by the scheme actually adopted by the Trust. En- ] gineers, at any rate, familiar with the habits of fivefs and with the conduct of this river in particular and the lands through which it flows, have expressed opinions which are quite definitely in conflict with the opinions upon which the Trust has based its proposals. Yet the Government is asked to subsidise the plan adopted, and the ratepayers in the special loan area are asked 'to sanction it. Mr Coates naturally was unwilling "to commit the Government, and as he may probably desire the fullest, .evidence that, the adopted scheme is the best, the Trust will perhaps hare to fely entirely upon the merits of-the scheme'in asking Jft)r the support of the ratepayers. The ratepayers themselves cannot know whether they" are being asked to finance the best scheme, because there has not yet been an orderly and full investigation of the conflicting opinions. to which we have alluded. The matter is one that might well occupy the attention of the Chamber of Commerce, which has' shown itself to be alive to the need, for interesting itself in public questions. The public as a whole knows very little concerning the question, beyond the outstanding fact that the Trust's plan will involve the destruction *o£ an enormous area of fine agricultural land, and that, if a huge river like the Waimakariri is to be interfered with, it ought not to be interfered with except On lines which engineers generally would approve. The problem is altogether too largo to be handled Without fuller investigation/