CENTRAL OTAGO IRRIGATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 14

CENTRAL OTAGO IRRIGATION

COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY’S REPORT. GOVERNMENT ADOPTS RECOMMENDATIONS. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, May 3. The Minister of Public Works (Mr E. A. Ransom) announced this afternoon that the Government had considered the report of the Irrigation Committee of Inquiry that was set up in May last year to investigate irrigation problems and. difficulties in Central Otago, and as a result had decided to put into effect, for a five year ' term, the recommendations contained in the report which has now been in the hands of the Government for almost 12 months. The principal matters that were dealt with by the committee were the price and distribution of water and the classification of irrigable land. The report recommended drastic reductions in the price p{ water to tile settlers, in a few fuses going so far as to suggest that free water be given to irrigators on certain parts of one at least of the settlements. A general increase in' the amount of water to he supplied was also suggested, and particular stress was laid on the necessity for'a systematic classification of all the land under irrigation with a view to deciding, the amount of water required. The committee also made important recommendations in regard to the administration and control of irrigation. Whether all the suggestions embodied in the report are to be put into effect or not is not clear at present, the announcement to-day being of a very general nature.