HON. W. FRASER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17156, 8 November 1917, Page 2

HON. W. FRASER

VISIT TO THE TAIERL

DRAINAGE SYSTEM IN A BAD WAT.

Yesterday tho Hon. W. Fraser (Minister of Public Works) paid a visit to tho Taieri to examino tho damage done by the floods of May and September of this year. He was accompanied by Mr R. Scott, M.P., Messrs J. Miller (chairman), R. A. Kempshell, Jos. M'Neill, W. 0. Reid, and W. M'Lean (tho members and secretary of the West Taieri Drainago Board), Mr F. W. Furkerfc (inspecting Public Works engineer of tho South Island), Mr C. J. M'Kenzie (district Public Works engineer), Mr B. B. Gouston (engineer to the Taieri County Council) tho Minister's private secretary (Mr Maealister), and Mr John Ivogan (clerk of the Taieri County Council).

Tho party travelled by motor cars through Mosgiel township, thenoe through Outram and Berwick, and up to Mill Crock road to tho confluence of tho creek and the Waipori River. Tho Taieri plan lay bathed in sunshine, and looked quite a picture till tho party started on the Outram-Ber-wick stretch of road. From this road right across to tho Main South road, the plain presents a melancholy spectacle, a huge, tract of country—estimated at 10,000 acres —being still under water. What is termed the Mill Creek road branches off at right angles to the OutramBorwick road, and runs for a mile or so up a small valley till tho junction of the Waipori River and the Mill > Creek is reached. The road, however, is only one in name, as the flood waters have practically -washed: it all away. Large-sized logs and silt and debris of all kinds show that a huge quantity of water must have poured over tho road from the creek and the river. Tho Waipori River in this locality at the present time is a small-sized, quiet-flowing body of water, but the willow trees and flax bushes which overhang its banks • nd encroach on tho river itself, fully demonstrate that every time the river and creek rose the flooding Will necessarily recur. The proposal of the City Council to make a new road roundi the brow of the hill—at an estimated cost of about £50U0 —to enable it to obtain a secure approach to the road running up to the power station along the bank ol the river, is not viewed with much enthusiasm by the residents round tho Mill Creek road, they evidently being of opinion that once the council made such a road it would not be very much interested in what happened to the old road.

The party then motored across the •waterlogged plain to Henley, and after dinner doubled back over the plain to view the pump.ng plant adjacent to the small lake which runs into the Waipori Lake. Here centrifugal pumps and a huge water-wheel scoop—which has been in its present position for 20 years or so—are engaged in pumping the water from the plain into the small lake, and it then flows as stated into the Waipori Lake, and thence into the Taieri River. Both lakes are confined by an embankment, but as the water in them is higher than that in the surrounding plain the water has to be pumped up. Two ot tlie centr.iugal pumps are driven by Zn horsepower electric dynamos, and one by a 20-horse-powcr dynamo. The waterwheel scoop is driven by a 35 horse-power dynamo, and is considered to be doing half the work. The wheel-scoop does not, however, pump. Its big revolving blades simply push the water up and force it into a channel leading into the little lake. All four pumps are placed close together, and the water to be operated on is led to a small basin through many channels running in from the flooded plain. The four pumps lift and push out 25,000 gallons of water a minute, or 1.500,000 gallons an hour. As, however, there are estimated to be roughly 660,000,000 gallons of water on the plain, it can readily be understood that it will require a considerable amount of pumping before the plain is cleared. An illuminating idea of how the Waipori Lake is silting un oan be obtained from the gauge kept there. This shows that the lake bed is now 9in higher than it was four years ago. A visit was then made to the big breach in the Taieri R:ver near the Otokia railway station. This breach is on the right hand bank, and about 100 yards of the embankment—which is close on 20ft high at this point—have been washed away. The flood waters simply poured through here and rußhed over the plain towards Berwick and Outrank The flood also scoured out the bottom, and has left a sheet of water between the points of the broken embankment. It was considered inadvisable, from an engineering point of view, to try to link up the points again, and Mr Couston, who is acting for the Drainage Board in this particular work, has planned to get over the difficulty by constructing a new embankment. Th ; =i is of a semi-circular snaps, and will include several acres of new ground, this land having been given by the trustees of the Shand estate. The new embankment will, it is understood, require an extension of the railway bridge at this point. The men are now working on the embankment, Mr Couston having let a contract for the work at £3000. Mr Fraser was thus given an opportunity of seeing at first hand some of the disadvantages which the Taieri people have to suffer. He will meet Mr Couston and Mr M'Lean this morning to go fully into the information which they will lay before him. SOME COMMENTS. ■. Things have now got into 6uch a bad condition on the Taieri that it is time the " wait and see" policy which has been adopted there for many years in regard to floods was stopped. The Western Taieri Drainage Board since its inception has had a very great number -of members, and everyone of them has apparently had more or less his own idea ot what should be done to drain the plain. The farmers at the Mosgiel end are not much affected by floods, and they are disinclined to monetarily assist their fellow farmers at the Momona end. In some quarters the contour channel—which cost about £28,000, and which was intended to clear the water from the Maungatua hills—is described as a failure, and it is said that it will have to be done away with. Nobody appears to have taken any steps to clear away the willow trees and flax bushes where they encroach on the Taieri and Waipori Rivers and retard the flow. Moreover, every time a fresh occurs quantities of silt are poured .into the Waipori lakes and their holding capacity is daily becoming restricted. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the general drainage of the Taieri plain has been neglected for many years, and the Taieri farmers all over the plain—and not in one area alone —must be deemed to be chiefly to blame. The Taieri Drainage Board is at the present time without an engineer, Mr Couston only giving his services for particular work, and the members must thus constitute themselves the engineers. It would be the greatest boon to fho farmers of the Taieri if the Government' would now step in and tell them what they have to do to conserve their own interests, and not allow them to follow the will o' the wisp methods which have been adopted in the past—in fact, the Government should, if possible, carry out the work itself, and call on the residents and othors Hving within the watershed area to pay their proportion of the cost. That appears to bo the only solution. The Western Taieri Drainage Board has just about reached the end of its financial resources.