Manawatu Drainage

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 260, 2 November 1937, Page 12

Manawatu Drainage

MEETING OF BOARD Present at yesterday’s meeting of the Manawatu Drainage Board were Trustees P. G. Mildon (chairman), D. Prouse, F. J. Russell, J. Collis, R. Tanner and W. E. Thomas. Trustee H. R. Green forwarded an apology for absence. Trustees Tanner and Prouse were accorded a welcome back after trips abroad. The financial statement revealed an overdraft of £2623 9s 7d with tho bank limit £3500. The overseer, Mr. M. Wilson, reported as follows on the works carried out during the past month: Good progress is still being made with improvements to Burke’s drain, approximately 67 chains having been completed to date. The Taonui stream cleaning has been completed from Rongotea road to Mr. Wall’s property. The work of cleaning the joint outlet has been completed. The Main drain is receiving attention at the present time. The chairman reported on an inspection of Burke’s drain, and said the contention of Mr. A. A. Mitchell that the drain narrowed from 14 \ feet to eight feet in one place and varying widths in between, was quite correct. There was a bottleneck which needed removing. Mr. Mitchell had offered £3O towards tho cost of the work if the board would make the drain 15ft. wide but the chairman said ho did not think the board could go as far as that. Where the drain ran through the ridge there would be a great deal of work to do. He had approached the Labour Department for subsidised labour but no reply had been received as yet. Trustees agreed that a uniform width was needed but Trustee Tanner, just returned from America, went further. “If the Americans were here they would scrap the whole drain and start again and make it 50 feet wide and not just 15 feet wide,” he said. “We haven’t had a broad enough vision. Fancy trying to get the water off thousands of acres through a 15ft. right-of-way. It is ridiculous. It is like trying to get an elephant down a frog’s throat. ’ ’ Trustee Collis: ‘‘What about the finance?” Trustee Tanner: “I know, but we spend a let of money correcting what past boards have done. It almost seems that we want a new board with vision so that money won’t have to be spenr doing what past boards should have done.” It was decided to go ahead with the widening to 14 3 feet at sft. from water level. Trustees Thomas and Russell were appointed to the Centennial exhibition meeting to be held in Palmerston North.