£l00,000 Subsidy for Manawatu- Oroua River Board

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7294, 2 August 1930, Page 7

£loo,ooo Subsidy for Manawatu- Oroua River Board

£1 for.£2 on £300,000 Scheme Government’s Important Offer After many months of agitation success has at last crowned the Manawatu-Oroua River Board’s efforts to enlist the assistance of the Government in carrying out their comprehensive scheme to drain the area of the lower Manawatu. Word was received last evening that the Government had agreed to grant £1 for £2 subsidy up to £IOO,OOO. This means that £300,000 will he expended if the ratepayers in the area sanction the board’s loan proposals. The good news of the Government’s decision was contained in the following letter received last evening from Hon. G. W. Forbes by Messrs, J.. Linklafer, M.P. for Manawatttr-aM-vfrriY-rifesii, M.P. for Palmerston: —“With reference to the representations made by the deputation which waited on me on the 23rd ultimo from the Manawatu-Oroua River Board regarding the request for a subsidy of £1 for £l, on £300,000 spread over a period of five years in connection with the deviation of the Manawatu river for drainage purposes, 1 have to inform you that the question was submitted to Cabinet and it was decided to grant a subsidy to the Board of £1 for £2 up to £IOO,OOO spread over a period of five years, conditional on Uie full scheme being undertaken. “Payments will be made on the above basis as the f’ork proceeds, the first payment to accrue not earlier than afteil the close of the current year.” Yours sincerely, G. W. FORBES, Prime Minister 9 The original scheme of flood control, prepared for the Manawatu-Oroua River Board, was estimated to cost £574,000. This was submitted to the Government but the cost was considered too great at the time. The Board’s engineer (Mr. F. C. Hay) was instructed to revise the scheme and he brought down a modified one, to cost £330,000, which embraced the outstanding features of the original scheme. This was submitted to the Public Works engineers who looked carefully into it to see if the money would be well spent, also whether it conformed to the general idea of the initial undertaking and whether that could be completed at a later date. If the complete scheme is carried out it will mean that approximately 700,000 acres of first-class land will be made available for closer settlement. This land is low-lying, and much of it has been under flax. There is at present little demand for flax and the area is, therefore, largely unproductive. Men well qualified to give an opinion assert that the tract, freed of the menace of floods, would with the climate it enjoys, be equal to the best land in the world, particularly for dairying. ,