THE RIVERS QUESTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XIV, Issue 1183, 1 November 1879, Page 7

THE RIVERS QUESTION.

Sir,— The late Rivers meeting reminded me of an old eastern scene, where an Arab chieftain, visited by so-called friends who had been intent on teaching and advising the old man from their own point of view, at last exclaim, *' No doubt you are the man, and wisdom will die with you.” I have lately been reading a work on shingle bearing rivers in Italy, such as our own, in which the author treating of all conceivable plans and schemes tried for about 1000 years, and an expenditure of millions of money in order to restrain the vagaries of the river Po, mostly, sums up with “The best that can be done is to leave them winding or even interrupt them in order to retain the gravels as much as possible in their upper beds, then bank at the lower places where they overflow.” But now, however, we are more fortunate. A man has arisen amongst us who tells us he can do just as he pleases with these waters ; he can cut off any kinks they may have made or confine them all to the Wairau river with a three-foot bank at a cost of a tew hundred pounds, if only the Spring Creek Board will allow him by going in for amalgamation- Surely that board and district will not in face of this offer forget the result of the Fitzgibbon dam whilst it stood, giving them all over the north side of the district sufficient water to sail the old Lyttelton on their properties} or the nine years of constant floods from every few hours’ rain after that, or the loss of their crops three years in succession. No! They will forget all this, and allow the philanthropic gentleman to put the rivers into the condition they were in before the white man came, which was the burden of his song. But when challenged to commence on the Wairau river from its mouth upward, and restore that river by clearing out the deposited shingle, and thus make the same channel as formerly, it was palpably evident that this part of restoration formed no part of Mr Charles Redwood s programme, but that it is simply an attempt to come another “Murphy’s creek” affair again with this difference, that then there may havo been some apparent excuse, now there is none whatever but the gratification of another craze developed by the water malady, or Breach oh the Braih.