OROUA BOARD.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2076, 17 March 1922, Page 5

OROUA BOARD.

4 VETO LODGED. BY KAIRANGA SETTLERS, Ever since the time when the forma - tion of the newly-gazetted Oroua Land Drainage Board was mooted, there has been considerable, if passive, opposition from certain settlers in the Kairanga and northern Karere districts, against the inclusion of that part of the county in the board’s rateable area. A sufficient number of Signatories to the petition 'for the fonns4ion of a board were, however, obtained in other sections, and tDe t Gazette notice declaring this body to be constituted, and defining its area, I was recently published, and the notice also provided for the lodging of any I objections up to March 24th. The, j hitherto passive resisters were thereby I galvanised into action, and a meeting of protest was held in the Kairanga I Hall last night, Mr D. Collis presiding over an attendance of about thirty settlers. The chairman explained the posi-. tion, traversing the history of the' erection of the stop-banks at Makerua. and their effect upon the Manawatu and Oroua rivers, as exemplified by | the last big flood. The speaker pointed out that their district was not likely to derive any benefit or protection from any works that might be undertaken by the proposed board, as they were so many miles from the Mana|watu river. Then again, their district ■was so well drained that it was not likely to suffer from flood waters to any serious extent. The discussion that ensued was taken up by Messrs A. Buchanan, A. Matheson, A. Mitchell and J. W. Teale, and a resolution protesting against the proposed board was carried unanimously. Messrs D. Collis, B. Thompson, A. Matheson and L. Walls were appointed a deputation to wait upon the Minister of Internal Affairs in Wellington and lay their case before him.