THE HAWEA IRRIGATION PROPOSAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21365, 19 June 1931, Page 6

THE HAWEA IRRIGATION PROPOSAL

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —The historical retrospect indulged in by your correspondent does not err on the side of accuracy as far as my league is concerned. It was the active instigator of the movement for the Hawea-Wanaka scheme for a major power station to supply all Otago and Southland, and pressed the subject strongly on the Public Works Department, and was represented at each of the visits mentioned. It carried out the agitation right through the rural districts of Otago, and desisted only when the Minister finally decided that, as no power would be gold worthy of consideration outside the city of Dunedin, the cost of the long transmission line could not be justified. My league has not at any time advocated the Waitaki proposal, which is a purely State venture taken up by it on its own initiation. I take exception to the statement that the Hawea-Wanaka scheme is again under contemplation, as the proposal which is the subject of the present agitation is a totally different affair both in magnitude and objective. The taunt about what the league has not done for the Upper Clutha. Valley needs no reply, as the action of settlers and the reception of visitors from the city clearly demonstrate their opinion. The deputation which visited the locality mentioned did not come, as “ Telemachus ” insinuates, to force and cajole the settlers into committing themselves to a project. The deputation came primarily to ascertain from the people if the project (which did not emanate from the league) was one that would be of service to them, and to see. as far'as laymen could, the possibilities. Being assured by the ilawea people op the spot that they wanted power and water at a price, my league will interest itself in securing a survey of the project, and a report and estimate of the cost thereof through the Public Works Department; and no steps will be taken to push forward the scheme unless the reports and estimates justify the erection of the works.

The ghastly failures quoted by your correspondent were not fathered either by the Upper Clutha settlers or the Otago Expansion League, and have no bearing on the matter under discussion, neither does the fact that some farmers whom your correspondent knows cannot pay 12s per acre for water prove that no irrigation should be undertaken. If nothing had been attempted by men because someone had failed, man would still be an arboreal animal of the most primitive type.

The plan submitted js not the plan of the Otago Expansion League, but was evolved for and on behalf of the settlers in the semi-arid region of the Upper Clutha Valley. It is essentially a small power scheme for local needs and irrigation, and will be pushed for only if full inquiry justifies such action. Unless my historical memory is dim, “ Telemachus ” was the youth who went in search of his father and came home to discover that the wanderer had returned. The gentleman, who uses his name as a nom de plume, having wandered into your columns in search of information, can now return home and find all he needs at his own door.—l am, etc., W. B. Steel. Secretary, Otago Expansion League.