MAKERUA DRAINAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 111, 11 April 1936, Page 5

MAKERUA DRAINAGE

MEETING OF BO4IID. i The monthly meeting of the Makerua Drainage Board was held on Thursday. Tliose present . were Trustees H. Seifert (chairman), T. D. Lynch, W. J. Boss, G. Larsen, E. E. Alabin, W. Jackson, and J. D. Aitchison. The overseer (Mr P. V. Tucker) submitted the folowing report, . which was adopted:—The river protection at Lower Whitanui has been completed. The cutting and burning of the willows from the lower end of Smith’s Drain are in progress, and . when this work is finished the cleaning of the intersecting channel- will be commenced. The contractor has completed the stopbank at the outlet of Seifert’s Drain, also the temporary .bank at Coley’s Bend. The Okuku pump lias been refilled and placed in position, but on the trial tho vibration was found to be caused by the 30 li.p. vertical meter being out of alignment. The motor has been taken away to be balanced. The wing bank at Smith’s Drain is finished, and a start has been made with the excavations for a new floodgate. Mr G. Stiles waited on the board on his own account and on that of a neighbour, Mr AY. It. Boss, saying that water from Waterfall Creek was escaping through a floodgate into liis property at Tokomaru. He asked if the board were interested in the maintenance of the gate and requested it to prevent the leakage through the floodgate, or else to allow him to take out the gate and put in a concrete pipe with a gate on it.

Mr Stiles then withdrew and it was decided to agree to his removing the floodgate or repairing it at his own expense, providing he produces a written consent to the work from others affected.

A suggestion for the lowering of a lagoon 15 acres in extent at Whitanui by six feet, entailing also the diversion of Seifert’s Drain, was placed before the board by Mr O. J. Dolan, who waited on tho meeting at the board’s

request. He said the drain required would cost £215 or thereabouts and tho floodgate £275. There were other methods of lowering the lagoon to allow it to become a sump; but one, to Seifert’s Drain outlet, would allow only a three foot drop, and another entailed tho removal of 700 more cubic yards of spoil. . Mr Mabin remarked that it would be valuable to have the sum available. Air Lynch asked if the work was included in the operations to be carried out under the subsidy scheme proposed by tho Minister of Public Works (Hon. B. Semple) and the clerk said it was. It was decided to hold the matter over until the board was assured from the Local Government Loans Board that tho finance promised by the Minister would be forthcoming. The clerk (Air N. I. Nielsen) reported that the overdraft stood at £3661 13s 2d. The matter of arranging a special meeting to consider the estimates was left in the hands of the chairman and clerk.