RIVER CONTROL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 176, 25 June 1938, Page 8

RIVER CONTROL

BIG SCHEME PROPOSED. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, June 24. The formation of a special branch of the Public Works Department of engineers with a special knowledge of river and. sea erosion is contemplated by Hon. R. Semple to devise a national plan of river control. This announcement was made by the Minister at Temuka to-day, when replying to a deputation which placed a request before him for assistance in combating the menace of flooding in the Geraldine and Temuka districts.

Mr Semple said the method adopted to control rivers throughout New Zealand in past yeats savoured of comic opera, with a multiplicity of river boards. "It would need to be tackled at once on a scientific basis. The cost would amount to something like £6,000,000, but this liupe figure had to be faced if the saving of thousands of acres of valuable land now endangered was to be accomplished. The nation could not bear the whole of this cost, and the. farmers would have to carry their share. < The Minister added that he would not permit the expenditure of one pertny of public money until the cause of, and remedy for, erosion were fully established. There was only one way to ascertain the cause—that was through survey and a study of each river and the surrounding country by qualified engineers. A staff of these men should be appointed to concentrate on the preparation of a national plan for combating erosion. The plan should detail the urgency of each particular problem, and set out the costs of providing a remedy. When that was done the country would have a basis on which to begin the great battle to save farm land from being washed into the sea.