RIVER EROSION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 18 January 1939, Page 10

RIVER EROSION

NATIONAL SCHEME FOR CONTROL OUTLINED 1! V MINISTER fUnited Prose Association 1 CHRISTCHURCH, 17th January. Authority has been given by Cabinet to the Minister of Public Works. Mr Semple, to draft a bill to deal with river erosion. The Bill, Mr Semple said in an interview, will authorise national control over all rivers threatening to destroy land, homes, and highways. “The Bill will be drafted and submitted to Cabinet for approval before Parliament next meets,” said the Minister. “Some big questions are involved in an undertakj ing of this kind. Additional powers will be taken by the Government to do the job as it should he done. There is an impression in the minds of some persons that the liability of local bodies and others whose property and homes will he saved will end when'the Government takes control. That is not the position at all. Those whose land and property will bo saved and improved are entitled to be asked to pay something toward the protection of their own property and the improvement of their own land.’ ’ An assurance was given by the Minister that every opportunity would he given everybody interested to criticise the principles embodied in the Bill and to make suggestions for amendment. The Bill would be referred to a committee, which would take evidence. “WORSE THAN USELESS” "It is quite obvious to anybody who lias studied the situation that the present system lias failed—the existing control is worse than useless.” said Mr Semple i “And it is going from had to worse everv ; year. I have said on several occasions j that it would he necessary to set up an | engineering branch within the PublicWorks Department, with competent engineers in charge, to study the rivers ami jto deal not with effects but with the j cause In the past wo have been dealing I with the effects and neglecting the cause ! and the spending of money, as most of us i know, has been futile” j Many of the river boards would autoj matically disappear when, the Bill was passed, said Mr Semple A proper svs. taem of amalgamation would he iutroduc--1 ed, and, above all, u proper organisation I would he set up to keep the rivers under control when the job was done—in other I words, it would do any repair work and keep a close supervision to see that there 1 was no repetition of the happenings of the j past. 1 CO-OPERATION EXPECTED “It is a gigantic job and it should have been tackled 30 years ago in the way I propose to tackle it now,” the Minister said. “Had the job been undertaken 30 1 years ago it would have been done at very small cost compared with to-day and thousands of acres of New Zealand’s best land would have been here instead of being out in the Pacific. Moaning about the past ■ is no use. We have to look to the future i and tackle the problems in a compre- . hensive and scientific fashion. In this ■ connection I expect the co-operation of all the local bodies affected.”