DAMAGE BY FLOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 63, 12 September 1938, Page 8

DAMAGE BY FLOOD

Though the year has still a little over three months to run, 1938 has already in damage by storm and flood been one of the most disastrous New Zealand has ever experienced. At different times during the year different parts of the Dominion have suffered, and few, if any, have escaped. Apart from a major cataclysm such as deluged Hawke's Bay towards the end of April and resulted in widespread destruction in the Esk Valley district, one of the most fertile areas in New Zealand, and the dislocation of road and railway communication, there has been a multitude of instances of minor damage all over the Dominion. The Northern Wairarapa is the latest to feel the effect of flood, and here again important access roads have been blocked by heavy slips. The aggregate cost of storm and flood damage in -a year like the present; though it does not seem to have been fully estimated, must be very heavy and form a considerable item in the expenses of the Public Works Department and other Government and local body authorities concerned. This is a constantly recurring item, year by year. Though no doubt 1938 has been abnormal in major and minor damage, the recurrence of flood losses of all kinds, including .land slips, has left the impression that something more should be done to ascertain the causes of the trouble and to ensure, if possible, some form| of more permanent protection for the| future. Reafforestation has been suggested in some instances, as in the hinterland of Hawke's Bay. In other cases permanent protective works, as in roads and railways threatened by erosion of river or sea, would seem to be called for. A policy that took into account this drain on the Exchequer with a view to prevention rather than temporary treatment is I desirable