The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1928. THE IRRIGATORS’ STAND.

Evening Star, Issue 19856, 3 May 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1928. THE IRRIGATORS’ STAND.

The Irrigation Committee of Inquiry made the acquaintance of very .-ned types of witnesses at Alexandra yesterday. The spokesmen for the Fruitgrowers’ Association showed a strange fondness for introducing entirely .m----eigu issues. This suggested a very imperfect acquaintance with the objects of the inquiry; or perhaps the tactics adopted were part of a subtle scheme for indicating lack of confidence in the committee on the main subject. The most charitable view to adopt is ..t tin introduction of such matters as meteorology, dehydration, and transport was intended to emphasise the plight of a special class of irrigators suffering from the general handicap of too little water at too great cost. The Dunstan branch of the Farmers’ Union, on the ..-a' hand, paid particular attention to a newly-founded organisation of irrigators who found the Farmers’ Union a very inadequate champion of a.u claims of irrigators in general, inconsistent in its attitude, and extremely touchy on the score of dignity. It may be explained that on either bank of the Manuherikia River there is au irrigation scheme. The Galloway Settlement (mostly fifty-acre holdings, •■■-c aggregating any very' considerable area) is on the left bank, and is served by a race system entirely separate as to source of supply and everything else from that on the other bank. This latter scheme, the Manuherikia No. 1, as it is called, extends from Chatto Creek to Clyde. It is the most comprehensive of any in Otago, and has this season suffered interruptions from which Galloway has been immune. It is from the Galloway side that the Farmers’ Union derives its main support. When the position is realised the remarks passed by the Farmers’ Uiam representatives on the formation of the Irrigators’ League by the Manuherikia settlers remind one irresistibly of the comment passed by the fond Scotch mother when watching the battalion march past; “They’re a’ oot o’ -tep but oor Jock.”

The attitude taken up by the Irrigators’ League appears perfectly logical. Some of its members originated the petition to the Minister of Public Works asking for a Royal Commission; and, with negligible exceptions, it was signed by all the irrigators in Central Otago. The Prime Minister, apparently scenting some party-political taint in a movement entirely free of it, usurped his colleague’s functions, swept through the district, and left a trail of surprised resentment behind. The appointment of the Committee of Inquiry followed after an unexplained delay. It was not of the nature which the petitioners sought or expected. They have been flouted all along the line, and it is not in the least reasonable to expect them to come obediently to heel after such entirely unmerited treatment. It is rumored that at the outset Mr Coates sought an assurance that the origin of the petition was non-political. He obtained that assurance—a genuine one—that party politics had nothing whatever to do with the movement, but that it was merely a matter of sympathetic, just, and efficient administration. His subsequent action looks like having the effect he professed himself anxious to avoid. The committee is now functioning, and for that reason we desire to say no more than that its composition cannot but introduce the political aspect. The settlers did not desire this, and if on that account the bulk of them feel indisposed to place their circumstances unreservedly before the committee the responsibility lies on the Prime Minister himself. It needed courage on their part to adopt this attitude, and it will need courage ! 8n their part to maintain it unbroken; for as it happens the investigation coincides with the issuing of the accounts for the water rates for the season. It has been suggested that already there has been some leakage of determination, in that the members of the Irrigation League are quite agreeable to the committee inspecting their holdings. That, however, was the decision come to at the inaugural meeting of the league. There has been no backing down, and anyone who knows the feeling which brought the Irrigators’ League into being must surely be amused at the apparently inspired attempts to circulate reports and innuendoes designed to undermine cohesion. The next constitutional step now being mentioned is a petition to Parliament. In the hoped-for rectification of grievances this will involve a delay which is to be regretted as inimical to the interests of irrigation in Central Otago. But it may prove to be the sound and far sighted view that delay will he the lesser of two evils.