RIVER FENCE AT RADLEY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27308, 26 March 1954, Page 12

RIVER FENCE AT RADLEY

WORKING BEE ON SATURDAY

COMMITTEE REVIEWS ACHIEVEMENTS

Radley residents who agitated last year for safety measures alorfg the Heathcote river for the protection of their children will hold a district working bee next Saturday, beginning at 8.30 a.m.. If it is wet, they will ■again work on Saturday, April 3. They will erect a long fence along the riverbank. “This will be the greatest single factor in saving the lives of the children of this district,” says the chairman of the Radley Residents’ Committee (Mr F. W. Richardson) in an appeal for helpers with shovels and spades. Since the committee was formed, after the drowning of children in the river in this’area, it has secured considerable assistance, says the circular to residents. A Government subsidy of £lOOO towards improvements, the erection of the safety fence, and the provision of children’s playground equipment, has been received through the good offices of Mr H. R. Lake, M.P., and the Minister of Internal Affairs (Sir William Bodkin). Six acres of land has been given for a recreation area and children’s playground. The City Council, the City Engineer (Mr E. Somers), and the Director of Parks and Reserves (Mr M. J. Barnett) arranged for the trimming of trees and levelling of the riverbank for grassing in readiness for the fence, for which £lOOO worth of materials has been procured. Two companies have each given £5O toward the project, and other firms and individuals have made contributions which, with district efforts, now total £lOO toward the playground. The McCombs Memorial Fund, with a City Council subsidy, helped to provide equipment for the Radley street playground. “After years of neglect by various Drainage Boards, we are now hopeful that at last something definite is being done,” says the circular. “The Christchurch Gas Company has teen stopped from discharging harmful waste into ; the river. There is a possibility that ’ an industrial sewer may be laid to i take the effluent of all the factories. A mobile dragline has,, been con--1 structed to remove the vegetation freed by the weed cutter, instead of letting ’it drift down to rot in the lower . regions of the river. A new sluicing ’ machine will, it is hoped, wash the silt ! from the bed of the river to the dredge * lower down. “At present the river is a disgrace ‘ and a danger. The committee will con- ' tinue to press for improvements,” Mr Richardson says. “The committee thanks one and all for their interest, ’ and looks forward to receiving co- ’ operation till at last we can say: ‘The ; menace of the Heathcote river to the I lives of the children has been overcome’.”