WAIKATO LAND ASSOCIATION'S ESTATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7000, 24 April 1884, Page 5

WAIKATO LAND ASSOCIATION'S ESTATE.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. I

The first and great work which must necessarily precede complete reclamation on thii property—or any other swamp land, indeed j —is, of course, to carry out a thorough syetem of drainage. Miles upon miles of drains have duiing"'the last few years been constructed, partially drying a large area of. many thonsands of acrea. Yet this has been bat an initiatory process after all. As the land is drained . the swamp settles, until there may now be seen, shrunk into. mere ditches, what were once drains' ten feet deep by fourteen feet in width. To merely deepen these again a few feet, so as to enable them to continue to carry off the surface water has been only found to be a temporary remedy, and until the solid subsoil on which the swamp rests has been reached, the system of drainage cannot be said to be complete, and the final subsidence and consolidation of the swamp soil secured. This work was, a few months ago, however, commenced on the company's property, and ac the present time the main outlet drain from the Mangawhara Creek to the Tawhai road, a distance of over five miles, is being, cut, to the solid subsoil, on which the swamp itself! rests. The old main drain is being widened and deepened until it is now almost a canal, being fifteen feet in width at top, eight feet wide at the bottom, and thirteen feet in depth. To have out this by the ordinary baud labour process, .with wages at nine shillings per day (the rate paid to the men working upon it) would have been quite out of the question. The manager, Mr. H. Reynolds, however, solved that difficulty, by the nse of a crane worked by'an engine both placed on a revolving platform, which works on a carriage travelling along the edge of the drain as the work proceeds. Seven men only are required onthe work ; one to work the engine, one to empty the iron cage as it is raised to the surface, four to fill the cages in the drain, and a seventh, whose time is divided between the shifting forward of the machinery from time to time and assisting those in the drain digging and' filling. Four iron cages, each about two feet square, and holding some sii or seven owt. each when filled with wet peat, are kept constantly going. As soon as a cai{e "is filled the crane raises it to the required height, the engine swings the revolving platform half round, bringing the full cage to the rear, where it is emptied at a distance of 12 feet from the dram, and the other half revolution brings the cage back again over the drain, when it is lowered to the men below. By this time another cage is ready for hoisting. Thus the work proceeds with regularity and despatch, and the chief labour,, that of throwing the heavy soil out of the drain, is avoided. Some four miles of this main outlet drain has been deepened, and though the aurfaoe water running in the old drain has been turned off in another direction, there is a large flow of water coming in from below, showing that the swamp is being literally tapped at its lowest depth. It is hoped .to reach the Tawhai road with this drain, a farther distance of about one mile and a half, before the winter sets in. This work is making a thorough drainage of the swamp, and is expected to be not nearly so costly as the cutting of the first series of drains has been, aa going to the subsoil itself it will draw the water from a considerable distance, a few such deep drains aa this referred to, doing the work of a great many shallow ones more closely placed. In all probability, and to judge from the paat, this drain,.now 13 feet deep, will, a few years hence, by the subsidence of the soil, be not more than seven or eight feet deep, perhaps even less, but the work of drainage will have been completed.

The aeason has been an exceptional one, and for the first, year for seven years Mr. .Reynolds has been unable to get some portion of reolaimed land sottb down ia grass. The continued wet weatker up to the middle of January has prevented the burning off of from 3000 to 4000 acres, which otherwise would have been sown down to grass this year. On the older reclamation, however, along the Tawhai-road, and towards the Mangawhara, both grass and turnips are looking' as well as could be wished. There are about 600 acres of turnips altogether, and the grass and clover sown with the oats this year arc a splendid sward, carrying a large number of Herefords and sheep of the black face Shropshire Down breed.

Returning to the machine yards of the Woodlands Station, we noticed a second orane and engine, which were being fitted up for drainage work, and also a new invention ot Mr. McLaughlin, of Papatoetoe, which, with smaller, iron cages used as scoops as well as for buokets, is expected to do the greater part of the manual labour in cutting the soil in the drains, in addition to lifting it out. The latter machine is, however, as yet, but a mere matter of experiment to which Mr. Reynolds intends to give an early trial, but the second crane and engine will probably by now be in working order, and will soon be put in use near the Tawhai end of the main outlet drain now being deepened.