RECLAIMING THE SWAMPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14170, 20 September 1909, Page 6

RECLAIMING THE SWAMPS.

WORK NEAR TE AWAMUTU.

Seven miles south of Te Awamutu the Main Trunk railway traverses the Kawa Swamp. Beneath the shadows of the old volcano of the same name, and the opposing Kakepuku Hill, and stretching to the Puketarata slopes, some 20,000 acres have hitherto lain waterlogged and unproductive. Speculators have inspected and passed on. At one time it is rumoured the Government of the day contemplated acquiring with a view to closer settlement, but it has fallen to the enterprise of Messrs. Marsh, Teasdale, Kay, Ross, Bertram, and others to take the matter systematically in hand and la prosecute vigorous steps towards a practical and farreaching reclamation. Under the provisions of the Drainage Act, a Board has been formed, an area proclaimed, and a rate struck, so that with the approaching summer, operations on an extensive scale will commence, and in time a complete system of drainage will be carried out, and ultimately all lands within the influence of the Board will be permanently benefited. It is proposed by the engineer whose services have been secured by the Board to deepen the Mangawhero Creekthe natural outfall from the swamp into the Waipa River, whereby the normal swamp level will be sufficiently reduced to permit of the excavation of an extensive series of drains of many miles in length, which will pass throughout the entire length of the flooded area. Several of the- smaller reticulations in the higher levels are already doing excellent work, as is evidenced in much of Messrs. Kay and Teasdale's land, where very fine pasturage is nowfast superseding the scarcity of former years. Mr. Walsh, who has considerable experience in the treatment of swamps, is a very large occupier at Kawa, and ha* much confidence in the possibilities before him. He expresses surprise that so valuable an area, so excellently situated, should have remained so long untenanted, and that' no one out of the many visitors and inquirers should have perceived years back the wealth of such country when judiciously manipulated. Since the inauguration of the drainage scheme progress in other directions has been rapid. The railway station premises at Kawa have been extensively enlarged, a store and post office opened, and a through road to Kawhia completed, with the roust ruction of a bridge across the Waipa now under consideration, making a route for communication between the West Coast seaboard and the Main Trunk railway, about twelve miles shorter than that in present use, by way of Pirongia, and finally it is purposed to lay out near the railway station a township to be known as ' Kaputuhi — native name of great veneration in the vicinity. On the high lands, to the east of the swamp, a domain of several thousand acres is being secured by the Government for the purposes of a mental institute.