LAKE ELLESMERE DRAINAGE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20918, 27 July 1933, Page 15

LAKE ELLESMERE DRAINAGE.

TO 'HIE EDITOR 07 THE PRESS. Sir—Will you kindly grant me space to reply to Mr Edgar F. Stead's letter in to-day's issue of "The Press." I was not intending to write any more, as I was under the impression that there was no need, as the Minister for Public Works will be meeting the Ellesmere settlers on August 2, and for the time being I thought enough had been said. Mr Stead, however, has called on me to answer some questions; but I want first to thank you for the space already granted, and special thanks for your aeroplane picture, which makes the position clear to all parties interested. Mr Stead wants to put me under cross-examina-tion regarding certain statements. What I have said I will stand to, I have nothing to retract. He says I now realise that the north spit will have to be protected. " I have known all along that both sides of the open cut must be protected; otherwise there could be no open cut and I understand the engineer has provided for it. Mr Stead wants to know what I mean when I say that it is the shingle that I

is washed out of the cut that always comes back, practically yard for yard. He finds it hard to believe, so again I must tell him something he has missed in his observations. I have observed that every time Lakes Ellesmere and Forsyth arc let out the shingle from the cut is always swept to the south side of the cut and forms a long spit running out at right angles from the beach. I have been out on the Forsyth spit on more than one occasion for about three chains outside the surf line. The lakes get to low water level, and while the weather keeps fine and there is no heavy sea, the tide keeps running in or out and the shingle stays where it was swept, because it went across the current. It is sometimes months before we get a sea that will close the gap, but when it finally closes it is always from the south. Like the closing of a door, the same shingle that went out comes back. Mr Stead wants to know what width of cut I think is necessary. My answer is two chains, widening out to lour in the lake. Tt is said to be a Christian duty that when a man smites you on one cheek you should present the other; well, as a friendly gesture, I propose to move when the settlers meet that the sporting community be granted the right to follow the contour of the complete circle of the lake for the width of one chain. That should satisfy all parties, so that we can work in harmony together; for Mr Stead seems to bo getting the wind up. It reminds me of Mokiha, a Maori shearer, who v.vs once a churrT of one of my sons some years ago. when there was a light between Johnson and Jeffries. Mokiha was delighted when he got the news that Johnson had won the fight, and with a smile on his face when he met my son, he said, "Well. Bert, what cio you think about it, the Johnson, the Jeffries?" "Ah." said Bert, "when a white man fights a nigger he ought, to kick him in the shins." "Kick it in the shins?" replied Mokiha. "How are you going to do it? You got the lGfcree and he make the rule and the i f u ? s /? y you can,t hit below the belt; then how you going to kick it in the shin? Just like you pakeha because the bluck fellow he win it] you want to kick it in the shin Yours, etc.,

* , , r , , K. GRKAD. Ataahua, .July 25, 103,'!.