Ratepayers Defer Action On £200,000 Drainage Scheme

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 18

Ratepayers Defer Action On £200,000 Drainage Scheme

“Just over £200.000” was the estimate of the cost of the proposed Halswell river and Ellesmere land drainage improvement scheme given by the chief engineer of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, Mr H. Murray Reid, to a meeting of ratepayers within and adjoining the Ellesmere land drainage area at Tai Tapu. After protracted discussions in which considerable opposition was raised to the adoption of a scheme of these proportions, the meeting decided to defer consideration of the proposals for three or four months.

Mr Reid said he was convinced the board could carry out the proposed scheme for about £B5OO a year—about £lOOO more than rates paid in the area last year—and at the same time keep up maintenance. It was proposed, he said, that the scheme should itself purchase plant and the work be done by the board so that profits earned by machines should go back to the credit of the scheme and help to reduce rates.

Mr Reid said his calculations were reached on the basis of a £2 for £1 subsidy on just over three-quarters of the cost and £1 for £1 subsidy on the balance.

As a result of a survey of 30 farms in the area, Professor A. H. Flay, head of the department of rural valuation and farm management at Lincoln College said it was estimated that as a result of the operation of the scheme there would be an average increase in earning of 34s an Jcre on 15,000 acres of fertile land in the district. On that account, he said, the scheme could not be regarded as other than economically sound. The present rate was under 10s an acre, he said, and the board did not envisage much increase in that rate to meet the cost of the new scheme.

“I believe that certain improvements can be done to the system.” said Mr E. J. Stalker, who is a member of the catchment board, “but I do not think

it is necessary to do all the things involved in the scheme.”

“He seems to have put all the spanners in the scheme that are possible,” said the chairman of the board, Mr R. M. D. Johnson, when Mr Stalker sat down.

Mr J. G. Macartney: If you had listened to Mr Stalker you would have gathered otherwise. Mr F. W.. Fiecken said it seemed silly that a big scheme of drainage should be contemplated in an area where irrigation was needed. He moved that no new major scheme should be contemplated. Existing drains and ditches should be maintained to an improved standard and where necessary improvements should be made to the system.

Mr Macartney said he felt the improvement could be made at much less cost by keeping the river really clean.

Mr T. F. Carter: I think if the river was kept clean a lot of these drains would look after themselves. I think this scheme is too big for the area. When it was suggested that consideration of the scheme be held in abeyance for perhaps a year the chairman said that the board was required by law to reclassify the area and if the board had to reclassify on the existing scheme the chance of adopting an improved scheme might have to be dropped for some time. The secretary of the board, Mr W. W. Brough, said that the reclassification of the area had to be completed by March 31, 1958.