District River Control Scheme Wanted

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 45, 22 February 1945, Page 6

District River Control Scheme Wanted

OROUA COUNTY COUNCIL SEEKS INFORMATION Piecemeal work, although possibly of an urgent nature, did not appeal as being in line with the ideas of the Oroua County Council whose chairman (Cr. A. B. Shannon) expressed the view yesterday that councillors should have a picture of the Manawatu Catchment Board’s river control proposals covering the river from its source to its mouth. His view was that the board should prepare a comprehensive scheme and he would like to know how soon the board would be in a position to make available such a report. It should be available before any system of rating was resolved upon, he said. The chairman’s remarks arose out of a discussion at yesterday’s meeting of the Oroua County Council after hearing Mr. W. McKay, a member of the board representing the Oroua, Kiwitea and Pohangina County Councils. Mr. McKay waited on the council to acquaint councillors with a scheme which the catchment board had in view for dealing with certain river protection work in the Manawatu River at what is known as Raukawa Bend. This work was associated with the trouble experienced last year when part of Siberia Road was eroded and a costly deviation had to bo put in. The Public Works Department engineer had prepared alternative plans for protective work and it had been suggested at a meeting of the board that the Kairanga and Oroua Counties might make a grant towards the cost which was variously estimated as between' £4OOO and £OOOO. Assuming it was £OOOO there would be a subsidy of £2 to £1 from the Soils Conservation Council leaving, ho suggested, £IOOO each for the two counties to find. In the subsequent discussion Mr. McKay admitted that rating over the board’s area was going to be a difficult problem to introduce but if they waited for the rates to be levied the works proposed might call for greater expenditure by reason of further erosion which might threaten the new road. He went on to say that there had been a strong agitation to wipe out the idea of a rate on classification and substitute a general rate apart from the general rate for administrative costs but as the Act stood this could not be done without amendment. Ilis board had resolved to put the question up to the {Soils Conservation Council and the reply from the chairman was that there was no prospect of the idea of classification being cut out. The chairman of the council admitted that in some districts the classification of the land for rating purposes would occupy a long time. “So you see,” said Mr. McKay, “before we can get along with the rating of the district we have a very big job to do in classifying the land. ’ ’ Cr. Shannon said that ho was particularly interested in the rating question and he had gathered that the feeling of members of the catchment board favoured a general rate and perhaps the levying of a special rate for any special works. Mr. McKay said the feeling was not unanimous but opinions appeared to favour the idea. It would mean an alteration to the Act, said the chairman, w r ho went on j“to say that the danger he saw in the rating proposals was that with the added burden of a catchment board rate, the land would ultimately be unable to carry the weight of rates. He did not feel that the extent and nature of the works which catchment boards would bo called on to perform was fully realised. It did not stop at such local tasks as the Raukawa Bend which was relatively but a minor item. He anticipated that the expenditure on capital - works would amount to a tremendous sum and ho could not see that a rate on rural land alone would suffice. He had always held the opinion that soil conservation and river protection was a national work because it concerned the very existence of everyone. The Oroua County was free of any river rating and if the council approved of the scheme proposed and made an advance of, say, £IOOO towards the cost, what, he asked, would be the position when rating was introduced? Would the council obtain a refund? That was a point which did not crop up during the discussion at the board meeting, replied Mr. McKay. He assumed that it would be a matter for agreement between the board and the two county councils concerned but he felt that the council would be entitled to a refund. Mr. McKay went on to say that he had always felt that it was a national work but ho did not consider that all the money required would bo forthcoming from the Consolidated Fund. “The old ratepayer will have to find his share, ’ ’ he said. Pressure on the powers that be might result in obtaining a higher subsidy but at present it looked as though the £2 for £1 would be the limit. If all the money required came from the Consolidated Fund then that would be equitable. “It appears that the Act is very imperfect,” remarked Cr. Shannon and with this Mr. McKay was inclined to agree. As to the rate proposed for administrative purposes Mr. McKay said that local bodies in the board’s district would be called upon to find 1/lGth of one penny in the £1 on the capitdl value this year to provide for the cost already incurred and next year’s administrative charges. He anticipated that administrative costs would bo heavier later and would probably double owing to the increase in staff. Cr. B. McLeod said that he anticipated trouble over the rating question and went on to say that if the council did advance anything towards the Raukawa scherno it would expect to be reimbursed.

Mr. McKay said that when it was suggested chat Kairanga and Oroua Counties should make a contribution towards the cost of the Raukawa Bend scheme the idea was that it should be in the nature of a donation to assist the board. It was at this point of the discussion that the chairman realised the question of what steps the board had taken to draw up a comprehensive scheme covering the district and the river from its source to its mouth. “We have on quite a lot of bad places in the river/* said Mr. McKay. * ‘ There is a coordinating scheme in preparation by the Public Works Department covering the river from the Longburn Bridge to the Gorge Bridge. Then there was trouble at Otaki and also over the range at Mangatainoka. No, I could not say when all the surveys will be completed.’’ He went on to say that the board’s work would not be piecemeal. It had in mind a coordinated scheme and proposed to deal with urgent work right away and this would be done to fit in with the coordinated scheme. The chairman: But these are more or less local works. Mr. McKay: Yes, but works of urgency. The chairman: What wo want is a comprehensive scheme before rates are