Aorangi Drainage Board.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6625, 17 February 1900, Page 3

Aorangi Drainage Board.

At the Aorangi Board's meeting on the 15th it was incidentally mentioned by the Board's Engineer, when reference was made to the question of erecting flood gates on the Main drain, that until the Oroua river be confined to its proper channel such work would be absolutely useless. He further warned ihe Board of the imminent danger of the Oroua river breaking its banks and causing wholesale destruction in both the Kairanga and Aoraugi districts, and pointed to the fact in proof of his statement that the outcome of some quite recent work he had done on the banks of the Oroua river had shown that a rise of 18 inches in the bed of the stream had taken place since the flood of 1897. The retardation of the stream flow consequent on the wholly inadequate capacity of the lower portion of the Oroua's channel to deal with the up stream carrying capacity was the great factor of evil. The Hon. W. W. Johnston, chairman, and Mr E. J. Kiddiford both fully endorsed the Engineer's remarks and consider it essential that a suitable body, having control of the whole length of the Oroua river requiring attention, should be constituted to provide precautionary remedies. They emphasized the comparison as between a possible charge of something like a sixteenth of a penny, and a deterioration of land values of pounds per acre over the whole district were the river allowed to work its mischief unchecked.