DRAINAGE OF SWAMPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21101, 8 February 1932, Page 11

DRAINAGE OF SWAMPS.

LOWER WAIKATO SCHEME.

WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED. SETTLERS' COMMITTEE FORMED. [KROM OUR OWN CORBESroNDENT.] MERCER, Saturday. About 60 settlers attended a meeting at Mercer this afternoon to consider a proposal to drain swamps bordering the Waikato River at Wnikare, Maramarua, Whangamarino, Wbangape, Cburchill, Mercer and Tnakau. Mr. J. Dean, who presided, said the drainage works would offer an excellent means of employing a large number of unemployed men from Auckland to permanent advantage. The areas that could be dewatered totalled about 30,000 acres. A camp of 50 men had been established in the Mangatawliiri Valley, where the course of the stream was being widened to minimise flooding. The number of men was soon to be increased. The camping equipment and tools would probably need to bo found by the local authority or the settlers in the case of further schemes, the Unemployment Board finding the labour. Mr. 11. E. R. L. Wily said that small stopbanks would keep out the river, and electric power could be used to pump the water from the drains over floodgates into the river, when the water was high. At Aka Aka and Otaua this system had proved very successful in draining 13,000 acres of what was previously a similar class of swamp land. Mr. J. Ilenry moved that a committee be set up to make representations to the Government for the drainage of the areas from Tnakau to Rangiriri, subject to a report from the Public Works Department. The motion was carried. Messrs. Dean, Henry, Wily, G. Roose, .1 Hill, F. G. Steed, and Spencer were elected to the committee. Mr. G. L. Mercer was later appointed secretary and Mr. A. Bourne treasurer. A substantial sum was contributed toward financing the committee's operations. Advisory committees for individual areas were appointed as follows:—Waikare, Messrs. J. Hill, C. Hill and Lumsden; Kapuku and Maramarua, Messrs. A. S. Stokes, G. Mclnnes and R. P. Searle: Mangatawliiri, Messrs. A. G. Gummer, Pendergrast and Glass; Whangamarino, Messrs. B. Hawke, N. Glass and W. B. Lloyd. It was also resolved that a district branch of the Land Settlement and Development League be formed, those present enrolling as members. WORKERS FROM SOUTH. PROTEST BY LOCAL BODIES. PLEA FOR MARRIED MEN. The action of the Unemployment Board in transferring 200 single unemployed men" fiom Wellington to drainage work at Aka Aka, near Pukekohe, is strongly opposed by the representatives of local bodies who employ relief workers in the Auckland district.

It is understood that arrangements were being made by the .Labour Department! in Auckland to have local married men placed on the work. This was confirmed yesterday by Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., who said he was astonished to learn that the arrangements had fallen through and that men were to be brought from Wellington. What had happened indicated clearly that the relief of unemployment should be a national undertaking, he said. If the board wished to employ Wellington men in the Auckland district, it was the duty of the Government to provide for the Auckland married men who were virtually displaced. Mr. T. McNab, Mayor of Mount Eden, suggested that a combined protest should bo made to the Government. He said tho board was showing a great weakness in adopting such a policy. Accordfng to Mr. W. F. Stilwcll, Mayor of Mount Albert, the suburban local bodies were looking to the country undertakings to lighten the burden of their relief schemes. The action of the board indicated that the boroughs had still to fend for themselves. " Any work available in Auckland should bo given to Auckland unemployed," said Mr. C. M. McCullough, chairman of the Mount Roskill Road Board, which is one of the largest employing bodies. A further protest against the decision will he forwarded today to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, and the Minister in Charge of Unemployment, tho Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, by the Auckland Labour members of Parliament and the Auckland Labour Representation Committee. The message, which was drafted last evening, is as follows:—"We desire to make an emphatic protest against the action of transporting 200 unemployed men from Wellington to drain the Aka Aka swamp when there are thousands of local men out of work. We are convinced that with v efficient organisation there should be ample work to absorb all unemployed in the locality of their own homes. We consider this action evidence of I lie makeshift and hand-to-mouth policy that the Government has followed all along in dealing with this problem."