COMPENSATION COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 12766, 20 March 1906, Page 6

COMPENSATION COURT.

(Before Mr.J. F. Woodhouse, Arbitrator.) THsl MOMOSA CLAIMS. (Hie hearing of the claim of James Columb i nst the Otakia Drainage Board mas resumed at theMosgiel Courthouse this morning. Mr J. F. M. Fraser appeared for the claimant, Mr J. 0. Stephens for the School Commissioners, and Mr John MacGregor for the defendant Board. ° James Thomas Gibson, further examined by Mr Fraser, said that Oouston’s 1905 plans were before the West Taieri Drainage Board on the 12th June. It was a conjoint meeting of the two Board’s at which Bryant’s contract was dealt with. The Otakia Drainage Board, at a properlyconstituted meeting, made certain alterations in Condon’s specifications. 1 o Mr Stephens; The. canal was very dirtin November, 1805. It was dirty in r-c’ awnber of that year also, but not so bad .is it was in the first-mentioned month. He remembered an occasion when bundles of straw were used for damming purposes, but they were not effective. Tltomas Craig, laborer, had done work for the Otakia Board, and know the dam in question in this case. He had been employed on work at the dam with Bryant in .May, 1903. Messrs Gibson and Sounness put in pegs to give them the height to which they liad to build the material. Earth was the material used, and the dam proper was raised six inches. To Mr Fraser : The earth was obtained from the- back of the wings. No level was used. There was a fence down the west side of the dam. He was not sure if there was n fence on the other side. There would at that time be no difficulty in getting stock across the dam. In regard to the pegs, lie was not careful in observing the measurements. Thomas Bryant, dairy farmer, residing at Henley, was employed* with Craig on the work at the dam. Messrs Sounness and Gibson used a footrale in determining the height to which the dam was to be raised. He did not know of his own, knowledge, but he believed the height of the pegs was sax inches. There were fences about the dam, and the earth used in the raising of the darn was obtained from outside those fences:. To Mr Fraser: There was a fence from the cross-cut leading rigid down across lire dam. There was a fence somewhere on the west side, but he could not exactly remember where. Latham Osborne Beal, civil and hydraulic engineer, was employed by the ' Otakia Drainage Board to trike levels and make observations at the dam on February ], 1906. He worked from data previously established by him from beach marks fixed in 1902. Those beach marks he verified. He look levels in directions easterly and northerly; and he tested the height of the dam so as to compare it with the 1902 height. H© found it ten inches higher. He then levelled along'the western side towards Moynihan’s Creek, and found there that the height' was the same as in 1902. The levels lie took at the wing-walls showed places above the top of the dam and places below the top of the dam. Those spots were marked on the plan produced. The eastern side of the dam was higher than Ihe lower end of the dam, by something between three and four inches. The western side was, just about the same. There was some variation in the height of the dam—from one inch to four inches. The old bank —designated as “Reid’s old bank” —had never been raised. There were levels on that bank, and they were below the ■ top of the dam, varying from one inch to live inches lower. Beyond that there was a bank, but it was right at the edge of the water. It was not a continuance of the old bank.' Levels taken there showed it to be eight and twothird inches lower than the dam. The. natural surface on Moynihan’s land about two chains westward from the creek was six inches below the dam. There was a depression of one foot two inches from the creek on the western side into Moynihan’s land. At the end of the depression, there", were about sixteen chains of low ground. Across the mouth of the depression towards the north end there was a little bit of a dam. There was a fall of two feet from the creek in a south-westerly direction. This would mean that the flow of water would be through Moynihan’s land into Reid’s ground. Comparing Mr Hutchison’s levels; with h'm own, there seemed to be: very little difference. Mr Hutchison made the height of the dam in 1902 and 1905 the same as witness did. After listening to' Hutchison’s levels, he would say that his levels and witness’s were practically the same. Witness had taken levels on Moynihan’s property, where he found a considerable fall to the west.' At a spot about a chain and a-half from Moyxuhan’s depression it was six Inches below tie lop- of

the dam. On the south bank of the crosscut he: found a low ■part about two and n-half chains from the dam. The levels there were from two inches to two and a-third inches below the top of the dam. There was a depression further along at the straw-stack' extending- for about two .and three-quarter chains. Between the two depressions the levels were four or five inches :■ above the dam. He took levels on the adjoining ground opposite the depressions, and found a drop of over a foot. The natural surface of the land about there was from seven indies to eleven indies lower than the top of the depression of the bank. The levels showed that once the .water got over the depression there was a tret-away - for it down Ins paddock. Taking the levels generally, in case of flood, he considered the very low .ground in Moymhun’s would let water from Moynihan’s Greek away so rapidly that the water in the creek would jnot overflow either the old bank in Reid’s or the depressions in the cross-cut near the dam and the straw-stack. In his opinion the water would not rise in the dam under these conditions to more than within five inches at least of the present ton. He-had had a_ great deal of experience In the construction of water races. The depressions corresponded with the by-washes in a water race, which allowed for the escape of water in flood time. He observed the velocity of the water in the cross-cut and in I)uck Creek at different times. It varied according to the tide, either of the river or the flood, and according to the 1 quantity of water. At about low tide in Duck Creek ho found the maximum velocity to be about three inches to the second. In" the cross-cut it was three and a-half inches. A mining water race had a very much greater velocity. • The fall in a mining water race was from 7ft to 16ft. (Left sitting.)