RIVER EROSION CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22610, 16 January 1939, Page 10

RIVER EROSION CONTROL

NATIONAL SCHEME OUTLINED PRINCIPLES OF NEW BILL DRAFTING AUTHORISED BY CABINET Authority has been given by the Cabinet to the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) to draft a bill to deal with river erosion. The bill, Mr Semple said in an interview with “The Press,” will authorise national control over all rivers threatening to destroy land, homes, and highways.

“The bill will be drafted and submitted to the Cabinet for its ap- ■ proval before Parliament next ’ meets,” said the Minister. “Some i big questions are involved in an : undertaking of this kind. Addi- , tiona'l powers will be taken by the , Government to do the job as it 1 should be done. There is an im--1 pression in the minds of some per- ! sons that the liability of local bodies : and others whoso property and i homes will be saved will end when f the Government takes control. That ■ is not the position at all. Those ; whose land and property will be . saved and improved are entitled to , be asked to pay something towards • the pi'otection of their own property and the improvement of their own land.” An assurance was given by the Minister that every opportunity would be given everybody interested to criticise the principles embodied in the bill and to make suggestions for amendment. The bill would be referred to a committee, which would take evidence. “Worse Than Useless” “It is quite obvious to anybody who has studied the situation that the present system has failed—the existing control is worse than useless,” said Mr Semple. “And it is going from bad to worse every year. I have said on several occasions that it would be necessary to set up an engineering branch within the Public Works Department, with competent engineers in charge, to study the rivers and to deal not with effects but with the cause. In the past, we have been dealing with the effects and neglecting the cause and the spending of money, as most of us know, has been futile.” Many of the river boards will automatically disappear when the bill was passed, said Mr Semple. A proper system of amalgamation would be introduced and, above all, a proper organisation would be set up to keep the rivers under control when the job was done—in other words, it would do any repair work and keep a close supervision to see that there was no repetition of the past. Co-operation Expected “It is a gigantic job and it should have been tackled 30 years ago in the way I propose to tackle it now,” the Minister said. “Had the job been undertaken 30 years ago, it would have been done at very small cost compared with to-day and thou- i sands of acres of New Zealand’s best i land would have been here instead of out in the Pacific. Moaning about i the past is no use. We have to look ’ to the future and tackle the prob-, ' lems in a comprehensive and scien- i tific fashion. In this connexion, I i expect the co-operatijm of all the ' local bodies affected.” 1