AN IRRIGATION PROBLEM

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23360, 20 June 1941, Page 8

AN IRRIGATION PROBLEM

Flooding of Arable Lands

Whilst the financial aspects of the scheme have come to a head only in the last few weeks, as a result of the Levels County Council and the farmers affected refusing to make any further contribution to the Government to extend its scheme of drainage, the seepage water has steadily been ousting arable farming from the district. The Seadown farmers state that they were assured by the former Minister lor Public Works—the Hon. R. Semple —that they would not be asked to contribute any more than the £IOOO which was originally asked lor and for which the chairman of the 1 County Council gave his personal, guarantee. The extension of the scheme to make it fully effective is. estimated by the Government to cost another £2500, for which a further contribution of £SOO was .asked.,

The council resolved to inform the Minister that as the ratepayers had refused to consent to the £IOOO loan, it did not appear that the council could seek their consent to raise an additional £SOO. The Minister replied that he had given instructions to suspend , all further work until the full contribution had been made. There the matter rests at present. But it is Claimed by the settlers that the matter o! cost is a small item in comparison with the disappearance ' of land values as a result of the seepage. It is also claimed that even after the expenditure by the Public Works Department of £IO,OOO, and another £3OOO under the 813 scheme quite 70 to 75 per cent, of the district usr no better off than before. This prompted doubt as to the utility of the •reposed extension. - A seepage committee has been formed to guard the interests of the affected farmers, and it is claimed on their behalf that they are suffering from an . injury , caused by the Government’s scheme, and'that they should not be, called upon to repair something for which they are in no way responsible. The drainage part b? the scheme, they:claim, should be an essential part of the irrigation scheme as a whole. When the water was first used in 1937 the district had had one of the heaviest raiflfalls on record, and the engineering advice was that normally the flooding or seeping would- not recur. In the last two seasons the rainfall had been less than.'normal, and so far this season it tyas less than 10 Inches. Notwithstandingthese, low rainfalls, the seepage area was steadily extending, ' even to light, grazing country outside ’ the am mehi&d ; ia ; 'ttars&eme.f The inspection .’yesterdaywas. made in .■ bright,bunny weather, and the flooded condition of the paddocks was obviously the. result of subterraneanpressure ' Arible Farming Ousted

The party;mostly ■ for ihe occasion:, were directed over the . asecfedTjlgaddocks. <S. • Cargo/ < - who hag/livtd in the district all-his. life, and.-who' could tdam&sQ-ito --dew tail. the - cropping - or them. Paddocks years"

PLIGHT OF SEADOWN FARMERS

Heavy damage to 5000 acres of land unsurpassed in the province for its wheatgrowing and general cropping and lamb-fattening capacity, and serious financial results to 40 odd farmers, are the prospects in the Seadown district of South Canterbury if something is not done to protect the farms from what appear to be the effects of the irrigation scheme brought into effect three years ago. Yesterday a gathering of 160 farmers inspected the farms and were staggered by the soddened character of the land brought about by the seepage of water. Included were representatives of Ashburton local bodies and farmers whose properties will be embraced or concerned in the much larger scheme now being brought into existence in that county, and what they saw caused no small amount of misgiving amongst them.

Drastic Remedy Suggested

ago grew wheat crops of 50 to 65 bushels an acre are now completely out of action for that purpose. The land is too sodden for a team or a tractor to get on to it. Where a highly productive rotation was practised—-spring-sown wheat, peas, oats, turnips, rape, clovers, etc.—these crops were finished with.

To-day the water is oozing into the grass in these paddocks, and where depressions or surface water courses are encountered it is with difficulty that they can be negotiated dry-shod. Paddock after paddock visited had the same productive record and the same decline, a decline where,rushes are supplanting arable crops and where conditions seem to be singularly favourable for the encouragement of foot-rot in sheep. The ■ only period in which the land is now free of water is between November and January, On one block of 640 acres towards the. coast—the original Seaforth estate—as much as 10,000 bushels of wheat were grown in a year. Generally 200 acres were grown. Pea crops to 6ft high have been raised on it. The other day a tractor was bogged on one of the wheat paddocks. Most of the estate was sold for soldier settlement after the last war. An abandoned farm on the estate was pointed out where the valuation before the advent of water was £2l an acre; to-day the farm cannot be leased at a rental of 7s 6d an acre, ' And so the story goes on.

A petition has been signed by 117 ratepayers in the irrigation area*asking that the scheme be closed down. The number who signed it—ll7—represents approximately 85 per cent, of those within the area. Of this number 43 are in the area below the railway line, which is the part affected. Of the remainder investigations have shown that 40 are using the water, but are prepared to forgo the benefits to help the 43 whose. properties are so vitally affected. Many of the visitors, expressed the opinion that nothing short of, stopping the supply to the whole of the area, in the terms of the petition, would meet the case. It seems fairly plain that the damage cannot be repaired by any modification of the scheme, and the opinion was expressed by a number Of the farmers present that it would take probably five years to bring back into production, equal to that of former years, the land that has been flooded. The drainage already provided has been far from fully effective, according to some whose farms front the hiain drain, as the water is coming up to the surface within a few chains of the drain, and gravel pits in the vicinity are carrying considerable water. For these reasons the belief was expressed that as the fall to the sea was small no extension of the present drainage project would be likely to provide ai complete remedy. >* in the meantime an area of 4DOO acres or more of wheatgrowing and other cropping land has been put out 2bf commission in the short period of ifhreeXyears.