A GLANCE AT THE PROVINCE OF MARLBOROUGH.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 96, 30 November 1859, Page 3

A GLANCE AT THE PROVINCE OF MARLBOROUGH.

[Continued.] We took leave of ou<* readers at Beaverton, without telling them anything about this rising township, which for some time at least will be the seat of Government of the Province of Marlborough. Much has been said about naming, or misnaming, the capital town of the province, Waitohi (now by the Governor's proclamation absurdly changed to Picton)j but the nomenclature of the "Town of Beaver" - for the present the more important place— escapes criticism. Why " Beaver," or, as the spot was formerly called, "The Beaver,"— what was the origin of the term, and its application ? These may hereafter be puzzling questions ; and in order to save future antiquaries a great deal of labour in their researches after the origin of names, we will make known at once to the world how the important township in question cum to bear thowuna ©f an animal that hat neat*

■■fence in the country. A party of surveyors, while ngiged several years ago in making the first survey >f the district, find a hut -on the site of the present nvnship. In a heavy flood which occurred at the ime, they had to take refuse on the roof, which cir;umstance led one of the party to liken their position to a family of bfovers. To distinguish it from other uirvey stations, thi3 afterwards came to be called the "' Beaver station ;" and hence, when the natural advantages of the place led to the Jawing out of a town here, it was named tho " Town of Beaver," now by nuny persons styled B^averton— the latter name, to >ur ear, being less formal, and more euphonious. Beaverton stands on the south bank of the river Opawa, and is intersected by the Omaka, which joins the former river just below the town. The Opawa is navigable as far up as Beaverton for any sailing vessel that can safely cross the Wairau bar, the rise and fall )f tide at the town being about three feet. Owing to the numerous bends in tho river, a steamer of the length of the Tasmanian Maid could scarcely ascend •t, besides which there are snags in the river that require to be removed before such a vessel would ittempt the passage. Kven for sailing vessels,theriver presents difficulties, caused by its exceedingly tortuous course; for while the direct distance from Beaverton lo the mouth of the Wairau river is only five mile*, by the course of the Opawa it is ten miles. Nearly the whole trade of the Wairau districts is at present centered in Beaverton, and il the road now in progress through Taylor Pass to the Awatere is made a good one, all the traffic of that important dis-trict will likewise be drawn there. It is true, a rival town is laid off on the bank of the Wairau river, called Wairau Town, where the 6teamer delivers her passengers and cargo, and no doubt this also will grow into importance, as the last-named river is much easier navigated than the Opawa; but Beaverton has got a start which gives it an immense advantage. The town of Beaverton has an area of 300 acres laid out in quarter-acre allotments, which were surveyed and first offered for sale three years ago. The town, besides a number of stores and.a public library, has four inns, two of which are superior to the average of hotels in the largest New Zealand towns. It has also a brewery which does a good business, and a number of the necessary mechanics, such as smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, saddlers, shoemakers, tailors, butchers, bakers, &c. The principal public building which the town boasts at present, is the Court Hou«e, Post Office, and Custom House (all under one roof), and an exceedingly neat and convenient building it is. There is also a bonded store, and a lockup for prisoners. A school-house has just been erected, but the building is not by any means a creditablo one, either in design or execution. No regular place of worship has yet been erected at Beaverton, but either in the schoolhouse, or some other building, divine service is performed nearly every Sunday by a clergyman of the Church of England, or by a Presbyterian minister. A newspaper is promised to be issued early in January, in the columns of which we expect to see reports of the first sitting of the Provincial Council of Marlborough. Having said thus much of Beaverton, we will look around and take a survey of the adjoining country ; and as the eye wanders over the plain, signs of improvement meet it in every direction. Houses are springing up, and land is being fenced in and cultivated ; giving unmistakable evidence of progress. But the manner in which the land wa3 disposed of in the Wairau, by the New Zealand Company, prevents the settlement of the country to a great extent, and years will probably elapse before thousands of the richest acres enn be brought into cultivation. Had the New Zealand Company, before cutting the land up in sections of 150 acre«, and distributing these among their customers, expended a few thousand pounds upon the drainage of the country, the whole property would have trebled in value. No blame, however, is to be attached to the Company on this score, because it was no part, of their scheme to improve the 1 >nd, and make it more valuable for their customers. The evil 13, that what was practicable when the Innrl was in individual hands, becomes exceedingly difficult when it is distributed amongst a number of persons, for large schemes of improvemjnt then become next to impossible. These remarks are particularly applicable to the district nowbafore us. Thepresent drainage of the Wairau plain is such, that probably as much as one-eighth of the whole acreage is rendered unavailable through swamps, and a very large surface of the sound ground is liable to be swept over by floods. The came of this is threefold. The Wairau river, when it approaches to within from four to five miles of the sea, instead of continuing to pursue tho direct course it has followed down the valley and plain, turns off in an easterly direction, and describes a succession of eccentric figures, which check the onward flow of the water, and leads in every flood to the river making breaches over the banks. The natural depressions on the surface of the land thus filled with water, having no outlet, speedily became swampy. Higher up the plain, four miles from where the waters of the Waihopai enter the Wairau, is the head of a dry river channel, which strikes off from the Wairau river bed at an angle of thirty-five degrees. Six wiles down the plain, flowing in this channel a small stream of water is found, which rapidly increases in volume. The stream then takes a bend back towards the Wairau ; and, after running a short distance, flows again to the eastward, past Beaverton, and thence in a general northerly direction, but with a most tortuous course, until it reaches the Wairau, about v mile above the sea. This is the Opawa ; and in heavy floods the dry channel at its head serves as a duct to carrj off a portion of the swelled waters of the Wairau, and distribute them over the surface of a large portion of the plain below. Between the Waihopai valley and Beaverton, several streams, namely, the Omaka, the Fairhall, the Taylor, and others, flow out of the valleys on the south-east side of the plain, and, after meandering about for short distances, disappear, the dry channels of some, except at certain seasons, alone snowing their course ; while of others, all trace is lost in swamps. About two miles ebovo Beaverton, the waters from these streams collect into one channel, ran through the town, and" join the Omaka just beyond the limits of the township. It is from these united causes (the waters of the Wairau brought down the channel of the Opawa on the one \ Bide, and on the other the waters from the valleys on the eastern side of the plain being lost in swamps, and having no adequate channels to carry them off) that the lower portion of the plain is at times an immense sheet of water, many miles across ; and it is this that ha* rendered it necessary for the Beavertonians to build their houses on high piles, in order that they may avoid the disagreeable circumstance of finding some morning two to three feet of water in their dwellings. If we have succeeded in making our description of the Wairau plain sufficiently clear, it will be seen that in order to render some of the best land available, and that the inhabitants of Beaverton, and indeed nearly all the residents on the lower portion of the plain shall not at times find themselves prisoners in their own houses, it is necessary that works of some magnitude, to promote the drainage of the country, should be undertak,en. The cause of the country being flooded is chiefly owing to the impediments which exist to the free discharge of water by the rivers ; and if these, when they approach the sea had direct courses, instead of twisting about as they do, the fall would be greatly increased, and their contents discharged much moro rapidly. The first thing necessary to be done, is to straighten the course of the Wairau river, where practicable, by cutting through the banks. Just below where the Tuamarina flows into the Wairau, a cutting of 400 yards would shorten the course of the main river two miles and a quarter ; and less than two miles lower down, opposite tho wood, a cutting of only sixty yards would save two miles of river channel. It would be easy to calculate the increased fall which this would give to the river ; one effect of which would also be to improve the bar at the mouth. The head of the Opawa might require that means should be taken to prevent its dry channel being filled by the waters of the Wairau, which however would probably never happen if the impediments we have noticed to the free outflow of the river were removed. Then there is tho wet land above Beaverton, which would become instantly dry, and that part of the country escape the danger of future floods, if channels were opeued.for the streams which lose themselves in swamps there.

Here then is work for the Provincial Council of Marlborough to employ itself upon as soon as it gets into harness, either by taking the task upon its own shoulders, cr delegating it to active Road Boards, who will pwfona the duties alfoftd tlwrn.

We shall now notice a more gigantic undertakingone which would produce mosl important results, and which, if it were possible to execute, should early claim the attention of the Marlborougli legislature. Tue projector was Ur. Tuckett, a gentleman who held the office of Chief Surveyor under the New Zealand Company, when the settlement of Nelson was formed. The scheme was put forth in an address to the proprietors and agents of land in theNelsonscttlement.and headed, "On the natural capabilities of the Wairau district, and the best mode of rendering them available." As this address will bi new to many of the present readers of the Examiner, we shall extract as much of it as refers to our subject : —

" Tho Wairau plain affords a great extent of rich alluvial land, on which the deposit of earth is generally much deeper than on the alluviala of the Nelson home district. In addition to the usual natural growth on swamp land in these parts, as toi-toi, phormium tenax, and raupo, there the dock has spread extensively, and covers, perhaps, some thousand acres on the east side of the plain. All such lands are capable of being drained ; yet in their present condition they are for the most part unavailable ; and much of the land which is already sufficiently elevated to admit of culture in its present state, is yet isolated from access by the interventio ■ of lower wet lands, and also by the channels of running waters. You may consider many of the best sections for tillage in the Wairau, as islands, to or from which, during eight months of the year, you could not drive a cart ; some of them would be always inaccessible to a curt, without an outlay of money in the construction of roads, in embankments, ditcher, bridges, and ferry-stations, which would be utterly bejond ,iour means, and otherwise a most injudicious and unneecessary procedure ; because, once within t lie bar of the Wairau river, you may proceed in large boats in various directions with the tide to any of these sections, or at least to within a short distance from any of them, to landing-places accessible to carts, without road making. Now, in order to enter the Wiiirau river in all weather with safety ; in order to command the best and cheapest, most lasting aim unwearing means of transport, it is only necessary to excavate a canal of about four miles and a-lialf in length, from the south-east headland of Port Underwood to the nearest bend on the course of the river. At the point which I refer to there i 3 a deep creek ; the back water from the river enters it, and it would greatly protect the canal from the force of floods ; but locks will probably be i*equisite. Its outlet at Port Underwood must be protected by i\ pier, which, to serve as a breakwater and shipping wharf, must be carried out for 600 feet or more in length, within and at which vessels would load or discharge cargoes. Or the c.innl might terminate in a dock with a soft bottom, which ships or birques might enter, the entrance protected to the eastward by the pier. A small town should be formed along th northern bank of the canal, and along the shore of Port Underwood towards the first bay or cove ; town sections of an eighth of an acre in extent would be quite sufficient ; but it would be better for the propeietors of the Nelson settlement to sell the town site, under certain conditions as to the construction of works by the purchasers, and of free access to and use of the public wharf to the owners and occupiers of hind for ever.

" The canal would probably cost £2,000 per mile, and the solid stone wharf about 61,000 for eacli 100 feet in length.

" By the excavation of this canal the whole of the great swamp in Wairau West would be drained. At present, the waters which accumulate during rains, on its surface, have no outlet. There was evidently once a natural dyke at the foot of the hills, similar to that winch exists in Waimea West, but its outlet has been closed; the original outlet of the Wairau river on the coast was also near the same point, approaching Port Underwood.

"Here is truly a block of land (sneer as you will at swamps) which would remunerate the skilful and industrious cultivator. I wish it may be given to twenty Hutch or Belgian farmers, to shame ours into a conviction of the available- resources in the remainder of the lowlands of the district.

" Wherein is the difference between the value of the Waimea swamp and the Motueka sw imp land ? but that the former has baen reclaimed, and is now occupied, and prized, whilst the latter remains unoccupied, and thanks to the "admirable principle and grand scheme " of choosing by lottery, and surveying and attaching to unsold lands an order of choice, a swamp it may remain for ever, for what resident proprietor will drain his own land, if in order to do 30 he must first drain a much larger quantity, either unsold or belonging to absentees ? "

We offer no opinion on the practicability of Mr. Tuckett's scheme, but should like exceedingly to s-ee it reported upon by a competent enpineer ; nnd the Government of Marlborough would do well to get such a report before it undertook to lay out any large sum of money upon a railroad to Waitohi ; but in the meantime, we shall ask our readers to accompany us in a ride from Beaverton to Picton.