THE TOKATOKA SWAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10910, 15 November 1898, Page 7

T HE TOKATOKA SWAMP.

¥■ TO THE ED l ™"' . ; v l i„t)nrs have appeared m your to to Tokatoka swamp, -0>!< ! "f" and works pertaining there,in reel'®,",,' rs generally contain serious to. Th - C f ind some insinuate grave charges, tffflP? 1 iwd to pass without question or ind-i illolWO |culated to produce mis(jplws; 1 '»'as I am, as will hereinafter concept' o ?'J interested, in self-defence I » to'throw a little light ; ft* I can but admit, have just The ECt Saint, and the manner in which cause °f co ?' i, treated is worthy of mves- « l„t tho tone and stylo of some of tigs' loll ' ""'calculated to injure rather than tte letters are It is not my intention to lid tbe fi, flutters or their cause, beyond the diKf T 0 personal interest therein, as I P° in . j Lmo investigation will be mads the administration (or lack of it) of *10 -npcted with the Tokatoka swamp, Sails 001 and other works, and Its jt, recla® 0 ""'' settle® 01 "- ... before me signed Francis 1 } aT , e L art . The writer has so little, B» dor ,„ to complain of, that lie evidently personally. to raise on his own shoulders i hSn of r«lrc ß '110I 10 wrongs and intle bl •,,,« of those settlers who wero not jonvenienc is trou y e( i about a 10 f0 -md an the price (ho was informed) certjuf mniinc the same, almost insinuating P "improper" price had been paid for that an L j ca rgo of the works then, lh j tied the price (which was no secret), and r i nnw work of a similar character m llVjrj! be glad to offer Mr. Smart Sto party tho samo P rice t0 I)orform 11 iS , 1 Ttbe'wd, it was never completed. ' Vmv intention to have had a dram I' /" ® ,ho east side of the road, the mate-p,Z-ded therefrom being utilised in tho " /formation, and the drain would have 1 . ff the water from the road, and prevent- " • overflowing the same would also ®8 1 relieved tho sections which he refers Why this necessary work was not cartlnit I know not; I was only prevented !"« doing so by the then scarcity of funds, t Smart states "that the settlers are . Heinz the work for a little over half the t formerly paid." This must be taken »»»« and I meet this statement k"™informing him and tho public that no Irk during the time I had charge) was per*°'l for Which the price paid yielded a Ser return or wage than was competent K earned at the price lie and his party lived for the co-operative contract they „ just completed. I do not, however, tar tho possibility of the correctness of Mr Sri', abortions as applied to workß and •'paid since April, 1887, the date my serL, were no longer required. Various correspondents complain of want nf outlets, state that tho provision made was inadequate, and that it was evident the Government were ignorant of the water they hid to contend with, and claim these as the Les of their lands being inundated. If Heir opinions as expressed wero correct, it mid be evident that gross ignorance and disgraceful incompetency had been displayed in preparing the drainage and reclamation scheme; therefore, for reasons hereinafter rendertd plainly cleat, I am compelled to offer the following explanation. Ido so reluctantly, as criticism of Government officials and their work by newspaper correspondence is objectionable because, by tho rules of the service, they are debarred from replying thereto. As an officer in tho service of the Survey' Department, I took all the levels, and obtained such other information as I deemed necessary, and worked out and prepared (personally) the reclamation schcmo, and had charge of tho operations for the first year ending A'pril, 1897. Now, as Can be mil understood, every individual drain of the scheme was a factor of the whole, and had its own specific use and purpose, and necessarily of such dimensions as would enable it to fulfil its required and particular (unction: and further, that it wtis essential that said drains should have their sectional urea preserved or maintained by keeping them clear from obstructions. This latter to not been done. At the commencement of this winter, there was scarcely a drain on the swamp that was in anything like working order, and many were reduced to practically less than half their original sectional area by slips, silt, weeds, and by being trodden on by cattle. As the fall or inclination of the drains 1 is little more than Ift to tho mile, it is easy to appreciate the necessity of their idle king kept clean, and this sectional area preserved; failing this they (tho drains) could not carry off the water they were desired to convey, and consequently the lands adjacent must bo inundated during h|eavy fills of rain. Again, those drains (being only a portion of a scheme), even if thoy wero in working order, would only have capacity in accord with their purposes; therefore, if they are required to carry water which was never intended by tho scheme, as a natural result they must overflow: how much tho more when, as has been shown, they wore not in condition to meet oven their legitimate requirements. Whether through ignorance of tho principles of the scheme and tho local causes that directed the eamo, a determined wish to ignore them or a happy-go-lucky inditferenco, somewhat characteristic, I know not, but stage to say nearly all tho work that lias been carried out during the last 18 mouths, instead of alleviating tho troubles above referred to, increased them, and instead of relieving the settlers from possibility of inundation, tho Government operations tended to discharge water upon their selections which, if the scheme had been adhered to, would have never flowed on them. Further, said operations havo been the means of introducing, during high tides and heavy rains, water that by adherence to the scheme would havo been prevented from overflowing any portion of tho Tokatoka swamp. Much more could bo written, but for the reams given hereinbefore and that at present I write strictly oil the defensive, and not on the offensive, I refrain.—l am, etc.,

William Bkeakell.