DRAINS WEEDED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3184, 19 October 1942, Page 5

DRAINS WEEDED

WORK DONE ON THE PLAINS TREES CAUSE TROUBLE WORK OF MONTH REVIEWED A comprehensive report of the work done in the Hauraki United Drainage Board’s area during the past month was contained in the following report from the foreman, Mr W. Johnson, which was considered at Thursday’s meeting of the board. The report read as under:— “The Madgwick-Baker drain has been weeded from floodgate to Mr Baker’s first culvert in drain. The ■Huirau roadside drain has been weeded from Te Kauri No. 1 to culvert at Hauraki road. Sutton’s drain has been weeded from floodgate to Mr Sutton’s second bridge opposite garage. The Taylor-Allen drain has been weeded from the Hauraki road to Mr Taylor’s centre drain opposite the cowshed. Pigs In Drain “This drain had several bad blockages caused by pigs crossing from one side of the drain to the other. I interviewed one of the Allen boys and asked him to block the places so as to stop the pigs from crossing. There are also cabbage trees growing along the bank of this drain on the north side, the leaves from these cause blockages’ in the drain. I suggest these trees should be cut down.

“The Kopuarahi-Kerepeehi roadside drain west side from Piako corner to Smeed’s-Sloan’s boundary has now been improved and completed. The Mill drain has been weeded from the Hauraki road to the Olsen-Allen boundary. Fences Need Repair

“I inspected the fences along the Miller-Newsham drain from Kopua-rahi-Orongo roadside to Campbell’s drain. The fences from Campbell’s drain to the Miller-Newsham boundary on both sides need repairing. The stock in one place have been crossing from one side of the drain to the other. The fence o-n the west side from the Miller-Newsham. boundary to Kopuarahi-Orongo roadside is in a very bad state and the other fence on the east side needs repairing in several places. “ I inspected the rubbish dump at the Kopuarahi factory outlet and went in and interviewed the factory manager and got him to come with me to inspect the rubbish. He said he would have it cleaned up light away. He said there was no need for it to be dumped there as it could be put in. the furnace and burnt. I also interviewed Mr McKenzie and got him to come and inspect the rubbish dump outside the Mill creek floodgate. Batters Trimmed

“In iPorritt’s drain down near the floodgate there is about three chains of the fence right down on the south side, also further up there is a portion which needs repairing. Mr F. Olsen reported this to me when he was inspecting the winch.

“The Williams-Ansford drain has been improved from Jubilee to Ansford’s centre drain. This drain still has the batters to be trimmed up. The last rain prevented this drain from being completed. The culvert in the drain next to William-Ansford boundary will have to be lowered. “ In the Kopuarahi-Kerepeehi roadside drain fronting Mr Parry’s section two slips have been removed and the toes of several others have been trimmed up. I arranged with Mr F. Olsen to remove these slips when he went to inspect the Meat Company’s floodgate and the Louch-Mc-Duff sluice gate. The slip in the Taipari drain has been removed.

Cattle In Drain

“ I inspected the fences along the Miller outlet from the KopuarahiKerepeehi roadside to floodgate and from the floodgate to the first bend in the drain. The fence on the south side is in a very bad state. In places the fence is right down and the cattle have started to damage the drain in several places. Three pine trees blown down on the north side have fallen across the drain and have broken the fence in several places on the south side. The fence on the north side needs repairing in several places. The fences on the same drain from bend to bend on both sides are in a bad state and from the bend to iKopuarahi-Kerepeehi road both sides also need repairing. There is a lot of pines on the south side of this portion of the drain which need trimming back as a lot of limbs are hanging down in the bottom of the drain. Manure From Shed “ I inteiwiewed Mr Daulton and arranged with him to block the drain up near the top end of his shed and put a cutting straight out into his paddock so as to stop the cow manure from going down into the . board’s drain. I also asked him to repair his fence along his frontage and he

agreed to do this. “In the Hauraki roadside drain crossing to which Mr- E. W. Schultz referred pipes have fibw- been put in to specification. “I inspected the fence on the Madg-wick-Baker drain which had been pulled down and taken away a month ago. The sharemilker had promised to replace the fence but nothing has been done up to the present time. “It was decided to write to the person responsible advising him that, if the fence was not replaced within 14 days firmer action would be taken. “I also saw Mr Colin Madgwick and asked him if he would' repair the fences along the Madgwick-Baker drain which he has promised to do,” continued the report.

‘ Mr Bradford, county water supply supervisor, has arranged to take out all the spoil in the culvert pipes in the Gumtown, Dally road culvert pipes and to take out the silt in the drain and this work is to be completed to-day. I saw the work being done this morning and a good job was then ’being made.”