TAIERI DRAINAGE AND MANIOTOTO IRRIGATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14926, 31 August 1910, Page 10

TAIERI DRAINAGE AND MANIOTOTO IRRIGATION.

. bIE .-I noticed a k-tter in yestetdav's .SSU, of.tl,= Daily Ti„,, S over or hngincer I conjidoi ho k s s t a t«] Ine.only feeble plan for opine with the flmnog* of the Taleri I'lam J u Dmiago Board took « trip up to Kokon.a and inspected the outlet of tho river tlw-ro l,iic } - would see at once tho feasibility 'of the matter. The amount of water that lould bo stored in the old lake basin would io away with any chance of a flood «ver | taking ~ ace- w the Taieri from the TawKivcr side, as well as doing awav with iho. ft getting down and filling up the river bed. The drainage which lias been dwio By silting up could be remedied to a gnat' extent by the us- of a dredge and elevator, which could lift the bottom and make bahls on each side, thus killing two birdi* with the one stone. Jam perfectly satisfied in my own mind that the board is workiiw at. tli? wrong end, as it liar, a tida l river to contend against, and that alone will prevent : the flood waterb getting away l!hc best ,vay to tacklo a matter like that, is to get a 3 near the rcot of the trouble as passible, and that is as far up the. river as they can get to make a dam and con serve the water, and let it down in quantities that will get away iir the natural courses The old lake bed is- an ideal spot for that, and easy to get material to for the construction of a dam. j

There is another phase of the question beside.? the conservation of the water. The Government is at present surveying a water race for ' irrigation purposes' round the-. Rough Ridgo for irrigating the Maniototo Plain. In my. opinion it might as well throw (ho money down the Taieri River, as' the land that will be served by th* race is not worth the cost that will be involved to take the water to it. and their the soil does not lend itself kindly to irrigation mi- ; less it is in grass, as it bakes as hard as a. : brick if the sun gets at it. By filling the old lake bed again with water it would cause a certain amount of evaporation' and moisten the air to a certain extent, but I think the solution of tho irrigation scheme for Maniototo is the cutting of the Government head race and' allowing the water to again run down in its old courses. . I can well remember when the Maniototo Plain had its swamps and creeks—in fact, in some places you hod to be careful where you rode, but now one might ride for-a day and not find wafer in a'dry summer.

If the old water channels were agauf filled and the swauip agaia wet, the evaporation

would moisten tlio air and rnin would bo as frequent as it irc«l to ba, but, as it. is now, fhars is no moisture in the- air, and for \r«cl:s ilisrc is nothing- Imt ,i hnnl. dry burning liciifc. that fcorehes evor.vtiiiiiif up that nii'/ht ciuw evaporation and iiriiuj rani: Cutting that rac* would l.c i-trik--1115; at thv- root, of the whole evil, and if the farmers, had licoir looking to their own interest tht.i ran* would irsver liavu lreo.ii made-, and 1 am perfectly Mti-iied f.liaf. Mamofcoto would In a vasily different place from who! it is now-.-notliiiiß but a krren waste., with a. few preen, patches erattorod "tliroiieSi it. —I am, etc.. A 20 Yews' Resident August 24.