Evening Post. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2. 1878.

Evening Post, Volume XVI, Issue 285, 2 December 1878, Page 2

Evening Post. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2. 1878.

Repeated floods in the valley of the Hutt have caused no email amount of loss during the last sixteen or eighteen years ; and, now that increased population and rapid means of access and egress have made the property more and more valuable, it is absolutely necessary that some decisive, even if costly, steps be taken to prevent further incursions of the river. The time is not far distant when, the Hutt valley will become for Wellington what Richmond, Twickenham, and Mortlake are to London. Speaking comparatively— comparing small thjrigs with jweat — the Hutt valley of to-day is what tfie Thames valley was not very long ago. As the Hutt overflows its banks now and inundates much valuable land, carrying away not a little in each of its visitations, so did the Thames in former times overflow large tracts, and establish swamps where now are thousands of smiling villas and choice gardens. What has been done for the Thames on a large seale — that which has metamorphosed dank osier beds into firm and habitable land, and preserved other land from the ravages of its flood-waters — must bs done fjr the Hutt on a s, mailer scale. Every year more or less damage is done to both private and public property by the sadden rising of this river daring the rainy season. Fertile fields have been carried down stream by the denuding effects of its waters ; and in one instance a settler with a river frontage of only some twenty-five chains has loßt in the course of years no less 'than fifty to sixty acres of good land by reason of the incursions of the river, and its erratic changes of ohannel. Isolated action on the part of individual riparian proprietors is costly work with comparatively little benefit 'indeed it sometimes happens that the isolated efforts of one are absolutely injurious to himself, because of the inaction of

the conterminous proprietor above him. The former fixes groins on his river boundary to lower the speed and divert the flowso as to prevent the river from impinging on hia banks. Were this process continued above by the upper proprietors a general advantage would accrue, but it has been found, time and again, that in consequence of no similar protective works being constructed up-stream, the river eats in behind the works of the more enterprising settler, and forms a channel which actually cuts off a la r ge slice of the land, and either sweeps the whole away or transforms it into an island, ultimately to be left, works and all altogether, on the other side of the river, •which has subsequently worked out a new channel for itself. In one year — abont eighteen or nineteen years ago — Sir William Fitzherbkrt told the meeting of settlers on Saturday night, no less than £2000 worth of property was lost by a single settler, Mr. Buchanan, through the flooding of the Hutt. The most of that loss was caused by sweeping away the land. Let a calculation be made as to what would now be the value of land on the Hutt Valley which eighteen years ago was worth, say, £1500. Six times the amount would only be a moderate estimate. Now there is constant danger of similar losses of areas six and ten times the value which such land was worth eighteen years ago. And not only is it the present value of the land, largely as it has increased, which has to be looked to, but there must be considered the great increase which would take place in that value were the lands certainly secured from further ravages. While the present danger continues, townspeople will be somewhat slow to invest in small allotments for sites for residences. Eemove that danger, establish a system of protection which shall secure the land, and keep the wayward stream within its proper banks, and the value of the land would rise in the market^ people would look forward to the time* when suburban dwellings would rapidly multiply in the Hutt, and new and smiling townships adorn the banks of the river. This can only be effected by unity of action. At present individual proprietors are spending sums which secure only a limited and sometimes doubtful benefit. Were a Board of Conservators appointed and power given to levy a rate for the general advantage, for every pound of rates so contributed by the proprietors, another pound would be provided as a subsidy by the Government, and by this means and by a regular all-embracing system of protective works, the river would be improved, the land on its banks preserved and mci eased in value, and the future of the Hutt as a place of suburban dwellings permanently secured.