A Way Out Suggested To River Board

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 93, 20 April 1945, Page 3

A Way Out Suggested To River Board

In a letter to the Alanawatu-Oroua River Board yesterday, the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council suggested that, to overcome the various difficulties, the Board first of all prepares in some detail a full programme of such river cuts as should be carried out in the near future. This would provide a programme which would warrant the assembly of suitable plant and would also be comprehensive enough to give all sections of the Board’s district some benefit. This programme should be discussed with the Alanawatu Catchment Board and agreement arrived at. The programme could then be submitted to tho Soil Conservation Council with full estimates and special attention would bo given to the questions of subsidy and the financing of the work. As to the carrying out of the work, it could bo left either for tenders to be called or, alternatively, the Public Works Department might- then be in a position to provide suitable plant for these works under which it could carry out the work by agreement with the Board. Tho works envisaged, which should be carried out in the early stages of any scheme, were the river cuts which had been examined and reported on in recent years., It would be necessary for full details to be worked out, including arrangements for the purchase of land.

“We have certainly got to ease up in expenditure as a River Board,” the chairman, Mr. J. Chrystall, senr., commented. “Wo can’t consider any major scheme of river cuts. If any proposal is confined to. the Parikawau cut, I am in agreement.”

Trustee W. Jackson said it seemed the Himatangi cut was the only one likely to get consideration from the authorities higher up. The chairman: Then we had better stop spending money on tho lower reaches of the river. The Board took no action.