Stewart’s Gully

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 3

Stewart’s Gully

Sir.—l think that, if Mr Johnson had told the true story, Mr Watt would not have remarked that the householders at Stewart’s Gully were “stupid fellows” for building in such a situation, but that the Catchment Board was incompetent for allowing the river to encroach nearly 100 yards to the doorsteps of the houses. Also for spending thousands of pounds of public money in building employees’ homes, some of which were inundated, in flood areas Was the Minister told.' I wonder, that it is proposed to throw thousands of feet of good building timber into the river, to be a future menace to. shipping? Or that thousands of tons of shingle have been, and will be dumped on top of sands as a warning to the river to keep its course? When I was a child I learned with a wooden spade that J could drain off a pool by digging a ditch, not

by building two ridges. But, then I suppose the brains trust in charge of the Waimakariri river were always too intellectual to play with spades.—Yours, etc., KING CANUTE; January 15, 1958. [Mr W. W. Brough, secretary of the North Canterbury Catchment Board said that the Minister of Works was told the full story and was shown what had happened in the flood. In addition he was given full details of the board’s proposals for protection at Stewart’s Gully.]