PREVENTION OF WHANGAREI FLOODS.

Northern Advocate, 11 July 1936, Page 4

PREVENTION OF WHANGAREI FLOODS.

To the Editor.

Sir.—Do the business people of this town realise what is taking place at the lower end of Cameron Street? A low level bridge has been built, and if the approaches are finished, as planned, the borough will create a huge dam. and flooding on the up side *as far as Water Street will be worse than ever. When there is a combination of an extraordinary tide and a flood, business firms will see a higher flood level than has ever occurred. I would say that in Water St. there will be a rise of from 8 to 10 inches higher than has ever taken place. I have ; asked two firms to protest to, the Marine Department about the lowlevel bridge that has been built, but they seem very complacent about it. The Dairy Company report that they have lost over £SOO as a result of floods in recent years. I know there has been a loss, but I was not aware it amounted to such, a large amount, as I pull a boat up the creek every day during the busy season to the . factory, and see things. I know something of the loss occasioned. Our farm supplies cream to the factory, and we tare shareholders. I don’t think I am wrong in stating that the Whangarei Dairy Company is the largest concern operating in this district outside Portland Cement Company, and the manager and directors have a duty to perform towards the shareholders.

I asked the manager to go to the bridge and visualise what it would be | / like witft the ' approaches finished, there was an extraordinary tide ancf*flbod; water coming down on top Ip. of that, but he is quite complacent, f A councillor told him another span had been added to the bridge, and I: that would release water quickly. I v have used that .creek all my life, and 1- know what floods can do. I have r.< written about this subject before, and O ft." ■ ipay repeat some of my comments. The cycle of years with heavy and contiguous rains has come around again, /and floods may be as bad, or worse, as in the years from 1870 to 1895. The , shareholders want to wake up to the fact that their dairy company is further menaced by a work that is being Undertaken by the borough, and that thie borough councillors dpn’t care. Thdre is a proposal to deepen theicreek, also to stop-bank it. I have moved up and down the world, and round about, and I have kept my eyes open to manmade works of al Iclasses. I have seen the docks of Buenos Aires. For two miles on either side shipping berthage is proyided. I have seen the

, stream that flows through Santiago, a city of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. That stream is paved with immense blocks of squared stone, the sides the

same. I have seen the breakwaters

the west coast of South America, arid not many cable lengths from the sripre, the declivity is so steep that engineers have had a huge task in wprking in deep water. 1 have walked sefren miles down Broadway (it is 14 miles long), and taken stock .of the towering buildings that rise triumphant by means of until 1 reached the Battery end and looked over to Governor’s Island. Anyone who travels in America should see this most unique city in the world. I have been along the seven miles of docks that serve that great seaport, Liverpool, an important shipping centre. 1 have climbed the Arc de Triomph in Paris. I have walked through a large tunnel that connects two' important streets in Rome, where two sets of I- tram rails are laid. I have walked | along the shore of Naples Bay, where tiie excreta of human, beings was dei,: posited by humans. To look at Naples I -v Bay from a steamer, with a clear sky, r?t : . and calm water, as she slowly steamed %. along close to the shore, as I"~did the last time I visited there in 1929, it was worth seeing. It has been no use writing to the Borough Council. For W the last five years my letters to that august body have been consigned to a convenient wastepaper basket, but my advice to the council and" the taxpayers of this town is: Don’t try to vs; deepen the creek or stop-bank it. If ‘.. .it was decided to stop-bank, where V would one start? Perhaps about the bowling green. If both sides were stop-banked, , how, high would the banks need to be? The four bridges Would need to be raised, and expensive ramps on either side construcfed. • fN Supposing only the left bank was constructed, to suit the dairy company as far as the railway, where would go the water that comes down that black spi^lwajy —Kamo Road an£ Bank Street? ■ Before many hours there would be a lake around the dairy factory. Then, if that side was stopbanked, .where is the water going to find its level on the other ‘side? In the first place, Hoeys would piit in a claim for substantial damages; an oil company and its manager would soon do the same. Then there would be compensation. A pretty heavy sum \ would be required to meet that claim. The idea is bristling with difficulties, and absurdities. I have a concrete proposal to put to the people of this town. It is not a fantastic proposal, a c, was the proposed dam above the Victoria Bridge—not a weir, as it was termed. If anyone wants to see weirs, go to the Murray River and follow its course from Echuca to .the South Australian border. Weirs are interestingstructures, and successful for the purpose they were constructed for. Had a dam been constructed at the Victoria Bridge then a few floods like there have been in the last two years would so on have filled the beautiful lake. Mr w Fraser stopped that proposal for all

time. My proposal, and I have thought a good deal over the trouble by which the town is menaced, is to construct a tunnel from the Waiarohia creek, with a canal as far as the hill, the outlet to be at the Waitangi Falls. The outlet, as it is wrongly called, would require to be 4 feet or so above low water mark, the tunnel to be ten feet high, so that at high spring tides the flow of water would not, be impeded by meeting the salt water tide. The necessary width of the tunnel would need to be calculated to take enough’ water to obviate any flooding from the bowling green down. There would be a good fall from the creek to the river, and at the creek the ✓ canal could start at low water mark. I know tunnels are expensive to construct. Floods, especially when business premises are flooded, are expensive natural calamities. I guess the distances as follows: Twenty yards from face to falls to Norfolk Street; 22 yards Norfolk Street; 100 yards from Norfolk Street to Bank Street; 22 yards Bank Street, 200 yards from Bank Street to railway fence; 150 yards from railway fence .(east side) to where canal would finish and meet tunnel. This is a total of 514 yards: If the land acquired to make the canal could be arranged for between, or along the High School boundary and Weavers, it would not spoil the playing ground. Probably 300 yards would be the length of the canal, the total distance being under half a mile. This proposal is being sent to the Hon. R, Semple, and I am advising the Hon. Minister to send a Public Works engineer to make an estimate of the proposed undertaking. I am, etc., ' W. A. HOEY.