LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1030, 13 March 1869, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Editor does not hold himself responsible fur opinions expressed by correspondents.

Sir, — A correspondent (IST), in your issue of the 6fch, says — " Having read in your paper everything bearing upon the Education Rate pro and con, aided by what little common sense there may be in my cranium ; also, some clear statements upon the same by able men of the sister provinces — I have come to the conclusion so often expressed by you, in which all possessing any liberality of mind must agree — that, rather than existing schools should fall for want of funds, all should pay the rate willingly, if not cheerfully, &c." I beg, first of all, to take exception to any want of liberality of mind in opposing the Education Rate —an unwarrantable conclusion which "N." has come to, and I for one retort back the insinuation as an illiberal sentiment— -a narrow conclusionemanating, as it does, from a cranium that the writer thinks may have a little common sense in it. Perhaps so ; but a good deal of common sense is sometimes subverted to partial views from prejudicial causes, such as Government patronage and influence ; and I think it would not be an out-of-the-way conjecture, to suppose some of the pros to be of the number. I need not ask " N ." if he has eyes, for he says he has read everything pro and con — with spectacles or not, he does not say; but if with parti-colored ones, let him read over again with a pair of clear pebbles, and he will see something among the cons — for instance, the reports of the meetings at Waipawa and lLaikora, both lately — the former in the Times — by which it will be seen that objection to paying the rate is taken upon other grounds than a niggardly refusal of a pound in a pecuniary sense. The resolutions at both meetings virtually strike at the same root. At Waipawa they have a schoolmaster put in by the Government, without the concurrence of the parents and trustees ; at Kaikora they have one unanimously chosen by both parents and trustees, but who is not as yet recognised by the Government, although appealed to, time after time, to appoint a teacher ; and it was only after waiting for nearly two years that the present one was put in by the trustees, thus showing that the Government would seem to claim the exclusive patronage of appointing teachers, to the exclusion of the wishes of the parents and trustees in the matter. Ido not believe the wording of the Education Act to imply such exclusive privilege to His Honor as Superintendent or as ex-ojicio trustee. In conclusion, I will refer to the present condition of the two schools. The Waipawa school has dwindled from over thirty scholars down to about eight or nine ; while at Kaikora, with about onethird the population, the number is about twelve scholars ; and the popularity of the teacher may be pretty clearly inferred, when I state that one gentleman headed a subscription list on his behalf with £5, followed by others of £2 and under, and this independently of the sohool fees. Let us have some voice in the appointment of our teachers, and the rate collector will need no photographs taken of us, as our ordinary business phiz will be the only one seen, in paying cheerfully our quota to the general fund for the sustenance of education. — I am, &c, Contra. Kaikora, March 10, 1869. Sir,— A few words on the means that have been, or may be employed to resist the force and limit the ravages of floods, may beinterestingtotheinhabitants of Hawke s Bay in general, and those of the Meanee flat in particular. The most obvious and earliest method of preventing the escape of river waters from their natural channels, and the overflow of fields and towns by their spread, is that of raised embankments along their course. When a river is embanked at a given point, and consequently the water of its floods confined within narrow limits, the velocity of its current and its transporting power are increased, and its border of sand and gravel is deposited at some lower point, where the rapidity of its flow is checked by a diminution in the inclination of the bed, by a wider channel, or by a marine basin which receives its waters. Wherever it lets fall solid material its channel is raised and the declivity of the whole bed, between the commencement of the embankment and the slack of the stream, is reduced. Therefore, we see that the current, at first accelerated by confinement, is afterwards checked by the resistance of the matter deposited, and by the lessened inclination of its channel, and then begins again to let fall the earth it holds in suspension, and to raise its bed at the point where its overflow had been before prevented by embankment. The bank must now be raised in proportion ; and these processes would be repeated indefinitely, had not nature provided a remedy in floods, which sweep out recent deposits, burst the bonds of the river, and inundate the adjacent country. If embankments are sufficiently high and strong to confine the water and resist its pressure, they secure the lands behind them from the evils of inundation : but such ramparts are enormously costly in construction and maintenance, and, as we have seen, the filling up of the bed of the river involves the necessity of occasionally increasing the height of the banks. They are attended with collateral disadvantages. They increase the rapidity of the current during floods, and the stream consequently conveys to the sea the matter it holds in suspension, and chokes up harbours ; and, above all, no amount of cost or care can secure them from occasional rupture, in which case the rush of the waters is more destructive than the natural flow of the highest inundation. > -<^_ The city of Sacramento, riSpalifornia, was secured from inundations by a dyke built on the bank of the river, and raised to an elevation above that of the highest known. floods, and connected below the town with grounds lying above the river. On one occasion a breach in the dyke occurred above the town, during a hig^h stage of the flood. The water poured, in and overflowed the lower parfc ot the city, which remained submerged for some time after the flood had abated, because the dyke, which was intended to keep the water out, now kept ib in. If the early Egyptians had embanked the Nile, a small area of valuable soil might long have been preserved in the Nile valley; but nature would have rebelled at last, and the mighty river would have burst its fetters and converted the fertile fields into dank morasses. Fortunately, the " wisdom of Egypt" taught hor children better ; they invited and welcomed the slimy embraces of Nilus, and his favors have been, from the hoariest antiquity, the greatest blessing ever bestowed on a people. Another method of diminishing the evils of inundation consists in diverting the currents from their natural courses, by tunnels or open channels. Several of the seven ancient mouths of the Nile are believed to bo artificial channels, and Herodotus asserts that King Menes diverted the entire course of that river from the Libyan to the Arabian side of the valley. The celebrated cascades of the Teverone at Tivoli, and of the Yelino at Terni, owe their position and character to the diversion of their waters from their natural

beds, in order to obviate the evils produced by their frequent flood. Remarkable works of this sort have been executed in Switzerland. Until the year 1714 the Kander ran parallel with tho*Luke of Thun, and a few miles below the city of that name emptied itself into the rivei' Aar. It frequently flooded the flats along the lower part of its course, and it was determined to divert it into the Lake of Thun. The lake was 200 feet deep where the river was conducted into it ; but the gravel and sand carried down by the Kander have formed at its mouth a delta containing more than a hundred acres, which is increasing at the rate of several yards a year. In this instance the reclaiming of land from the j lake was an advantageous, though unlookedfor occurrence ; but, in cases where rivers fall into the sea in the vicinity of harbours, the consequences of diverting them from their natural courses should oe seriously considered. And, it is worthy of notice, the deposit of slime by rivers upon the flats along their banks not only fertilises the soil, but serves a still more important purpose in the general economy of nature. All running streams begin with excavating channels for themselves, or deepening the natural depressions in which they flow ; but as their outlets are raised by the material deposited by their currents, their velocity is diminished ; they deposit sand at higher and higher points, and so elevate, in the middle and lower part of the course, the beds they had previously scooped out. Theraising of the channels is compensated, in part, by the elevation of their banks and adjoining flats from the deposit of sand and mould brought down from the mountains, without which the low grounds bordering all rivers would be, as in fact they often are, mere morasses. All arrangements which tend to obstruct this process of raising the flats adjacent to the channel interfere with the economy of nature, and at last cause the formation of marshes where, if left to herself, she would have accumulated inexhaustible stores of the richest soil, and spread them out in plains above the reach of ordinary floods. It is, in general, true that the intervention of man has seemed hitherto to insure the final exhaustion, ruin, and desolation of every province of nature which he has reduced to his dominion. Lands once rendered uninhabitable by human acts or neglect have generally been for ever abandoned as hopelessly irreclaimable. The valleys of Tuscany, however, form a striking exception to this remark. There human guidance has made the operations of nature available for the restoration of her disturbed harmonies. The operations j in the Val di Chiana and the Tuscan Maremma are among the noblest achievements of modern engineering. A lengthy description and a detailed account of the peculiarities of the country would be necessary to give a clear idea of the plans adopted. However, I may briefly mention that the operations in the Val di Chiana have consisted chiefly in so regulating the flow of the surface waters into, to, and through it, as to c.ompel them to deposit their sedimentary matter at the will of the engineers, and thus to raise grounds hitherto unfit for agricultural use. In the Maremma the improvements have embraced both this method of elevating the level of the soil, and the prevention of the mixture of salt-water with fresh in the coast marches, which is an active cause of the development of malarious influences. These works, as I have said, have aided, not thwarted, the efforts of nature, and are a remarkable exception to a general rule. Attila was only giving an energetic and picturesque expression to the tendencies of human action as personified in himself, when he said " that no grass grew where his horse's hoofs had trod." J. L. 0. Sir, — The question of creating and encouraging new industrial occupations is engaging the attention of the New Zealand press, and I trust will not be allowed to drop. A propos of flax — a production so bountifully supplied by nature in this province — allow me to quote from a letter I received lately from a relation of mine in Christchurch : — *' Max is making a great stir here ; numerous small machines are starting all over the country — one just opposite my house—and it seems to pay well. They are getting from 30 to £35 per ton." I don't know what kind of machine is used, but shall be happy to enquire further on the subject of any one desirous of turning his attention to this kind of industry. — I, am &c, John Wilkinson. Napier, March 10, 1869. Sib, — I wish to give warning, if not already given through other sources, that a combined and hostile movement is immediately to be made by Matautaira's forces frem Waikato and Taupo, against this province. Napier and its surrounding settlements have been pointed out as being the chief objects of vengeance. Seven hundred Hauhaus have been already massed, and each successive day is expected to swell that number. Napier is to be crushed by an overwhelming force, and the massacre is to be a complete one — neither age nor sex are to be spared ; after which Turanga and Wairoa are to be dealt with. I happened to be at Warepuni last night, in which a letter from one Hori was read out before about forty natives (the occasion of the assemblage being a tangi for the dead) conveying information that the Hauhaus might very soon be expected, the present month being the one during which it had been settled that an attack shall be made. Two or three more massacres like the late one at the White Cliffs, perpetrated without loss to their own side, will encourage many more to flock around the King's standard. There has been a talk for a long time about a general rising. This is the month appointed for it to take place. Letters have been sent to all parts, requiring all Maoris to join in extirpating the pakehas, and those natives who will not respond to the call are to be killed. I believo Te Kooti will not come here, as he has work cut out for him elsewhere ; but the Hauhaus will be under leaders quite as bad as him. Natives here do not appear to be totally free from alarm at the prospect before them. The enemy has declared that an attack upon this province shall be a determined one, and that severe losses on their side shall not intimidate thorn. Of course the exact time has not been divulged as to when a movement is to be made — it might be in a week's time, or yet a few weeks henco ; but that we shall be attacked, I, for one, believe, unless it should be averted by some unforeseen obstacle. Napier, from its situation and the number of its inhabitants, I conclude need never have any occasion to dread the results of an attack ; but not so the settlements outside — there is where the loss would really be. I am inclined to think that rather too much reliance has been placed on the security of block -houses said to be ball proof. They might answer very well for two or three days, if one felj; assured of relief from other quarters ; but in the event of many places being attacked at the same moment, and which is not unlikely to happen, reliefs would be cut off, whilo all who were caged inside a block-house might be starved out by the enemy, who could feast at his ease in the houses, or upon crops of potatoes, as long as he held possession of

a township. This is all I have to say, and whether the information on the subject of an attack proves correct or otherwise, time will show. I but give it as I learnt i.fc from natives.— l am, Ac, E. L. Snee.