THE KAIKORAI LAGOON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18322, 12 August 1921, Page 2

THE KAIKORAI LAGOON.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln a paragraph in regard to the Kaikorui lagoon in this morning's Duily Times attention is called to the diJficiiiry of letting the water away, although it is sevetn.' inches higher than it has been for some tinw. An, attempt is made to attribute the trouble to local conditions during the present year. As a large amount of public money will have to be spent before a remedy is found, and as in the meantime Brighton and Taieri Mouth may be cut off from Uunedin by xoad, 1 tako the liberty of pointing out the cause of the* conditions which now prevail, and will prevail, and get worse year by year until remedied. Before the lower bridge was erected the water had free vent, and scoured the sand at the mouth of the stream well out to sea when it burst. In those days the mouth of the stream was an estuary, with very little sand to contend with. After the. bridge was erected this was all altered. Owing to the bridge being wsiAe too narrow and the channel under the bridge being tilled with boulders up to low water level, which acted as a complete dam, the stream never got vent enough to scour the eand away from its. month, lite result is that the sand has accumulated round the mouth to such an extent that the present trouble has arisen. The sea is now 300 yards further from the river than previously. To show the effect the bridge has had on the scour it is only necessary to mention that before the bridge was there the water went out in six hours. It now takes four days, and does not go down to within 2ft of its former level. Formerly the flats remained dry for 11 months in the year, the strcum remaining open owing to there being no sand there to block it. iVow, the stream closes within a week of going out, and the ilat land is flooded immediately. Tltcro are 1000 acres in this flat which at one time were equal to the best Taieri land, and grazed hundreds of cattle. They are now worthless, however, tlirough the action of the Taieri County Council in damming the water at- tho bridge. You refer to the St. Clair beach in the same connection, and I may state that the sand which is being retained at the mouth of thia stream may have its effect on St. Clair. In olden days, when the Kaikorai Stream burst its bar the scour could be seen for a long distance out to sea, and as Black Head is only a short distance away, and as there is a three-mile or four-mile current northward per hour, some of this sund will find its way to St. CUvir.—l am, etc., Jas. B. Kirkland. Fairfield, August 10.