“A HARDY ANNUAL”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22069, 27 September 1933, Page 11

“A HARDY ANNUAL”

IRRIGATION WATER RATES POSITION IN CENTRAL OTAGO SETTLERS BECOMING ANXIOUS When Baloo, the bear, was trying to think out a, plan to rescue Mowgli from the monkeys, he decided to bring' to the rescue Kaa, the python, their most dreaded enemy. Baloo’s plan of campaign was “to each his own fear.’’ There is something each individual or institution dreads more than anything else. If the chief clerk of the Public Works Department were s asked what it was the department has most to fear in Central Otago he would probably say, “the balancing of the irrigation budget and the settling each year of the vexed and complicated question of water rates.” Every year the problem crops up with monotonous regularity, a hardy annual which causes worried frowns on the brows of those who administer the numerous irrigation schemes and anxious moments on the part of the settlors. At the present time irrigators in most of the settlements are seriously alarmed concerning the uncertainty of their position with regard to water supplies for the present irrigation season which commenced on September 1. Until the recent rains early this month considerable anxiety was caused by the suggestion that in view of the mild winter and unusually light snowfall on the high country storage schemes would bo short of supplies, but the position has b-jen greatly improved in that respect, and the chief worry of settlers is with regard to the notices with which they have been served by the Public Works Department, intimating that unless overdue , water rates are paid within a stated time the current season’s supplies will be withheld. The uncertainty in the matter arises from the fact that on a recent visit to Central Otago the Mortgagors’ Adjustment Commission took evidence on the subject of water rates and the ability of settlers to bear the charges imposed upon them. At the conclusion of the sittings it was understood that the findings and recommendations of the commission would be submitted to the Government by the time the season opened, and that the terras of the recommendations in individual cases would be to the settlers concerned, thus determining their position for the coming season. Nothing has been heard to date, of the commission’s recommendations and both Public Works Department and settlers are in the dark as to what is to be done in the matter. In the meantime settlers have been served with peremptory demands for the payment of charges due on the original terms, in default a cessation of present supplies, irrespective of their ability to meet the demands. Any interruption of supplies at the present moment will have the most serious consequences for pastoralists as the country has missed the usual winter drenching which carries pastures on into the summer under normal conditions. There can be no doubt concerning the increased productiveness and stock-carry-ing capacity which have followed the establishment of irrigation settlements in Central Otago, but there is general disappointment throughout this part of the province among those who have watched irrigation develop over the past decado that nothing bps yet been done by the Government in the direction of applying the waters of irrigation in a scientific and intelligent manner. The most regrettable feature of the administration of irrigation in Central Otago is one which Was strongly commented upon by the 1028 Irrigation Commission, the members of which were unanimous that the best results could not be obtained until the best manner of using the water was determined. Although hundreds of thousands of pounds have, been spent, and are still being spent, on the construction of extensive irrigation works, practically nothing has been done to determine how best the water can be used to enable settlers to return to the Government by way of rates sufficient to provide even the smallest percentage of interest on capital expenditure. This, it is contended by irrigators, is what settlers require more than actual reductions in water rates. Under certain conditions water is dear at Id per acre, while it can quite easily be cheap at fl per acre. No matter how well constructed an irrigation system may be from an engineering point of view, it must be a failure if the farmer below the race cannot utilise the water profitably or successfully. The policy" of closing the only experimental area in . Central Otago, the Galloway farm, and the reduction to an absolute minimum of all expenditure on irrigar tion research on the grounds of economic necessity has, in the view of prominent irrigators, been a seriously retrograde step. Settlers find it difficult to appreciate the logic of spending huge sums of money on the construction of schemes and ignoring the vital necessity of devoting a small sum to the task of determining -the best use to which the water can . be put and the actual value of the water to the different classes of land which it serves. “

It is held, not unreasonably, in the irrigation settlements of Central Otago that if the whole question of the duty of water and its value on different types of land were determined once and for all, and charges based on the result of such investigations, the Public Works Department’s annual worries over rates and arrears would largely disappear. There has not been a year since the sliding scale of charges began to approach maximum figures in which the department has not found itself f. ced with the question of remitting rates or' withholding supplies of water. Settlers are agreed that the department cannot continue drawing less than 1 per cent, interest on capital expended indefinitely, but they also 'emphasise, the fact that only certain land can afford high rates and that some land cannot afford any at all.