IRRIGATION SCHEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22719, 4 November 1935, Page 7

IRRIGATION SCHEME

THE MANIOTOTO PROJECT LARGE AREA TO BENEFIT An outline of the Maniototo irrigation scheme which the Government proposes to launch as part of its re-employment plan was given to a Daily Times reporter on Saturday by the district engineer of the Public Works Department, Mr T. M. Ball. The cost of the work, the Minister of Finance announced on Friday, will be £750,000, and it will provide work for 500 men for a period of four years. Mr' Ball said that the area to be irrigated was 40,000 acres in extent, and was on the Gimmerburn and Ranfurly side of the Maniototo Plain. The scheme was a modification of the proposal which his department had been investigating for some years, and only land which could be reached by the gravitational flow of water would be included in the present proposals. At some future time, the scheme could be extended by the pumping of water to the higher levels, but to put the whole of the project into operation at once would be too large an, undertaking, 'involving the improvement of too great an area of land at one time and also the importation of pumping plant. The water supply for the scheme would be taken from the Taieri River, and would be impounded in a dam at the Styx, near the Paerau Hotel. It would be possible to retain practically the whole of the winter flow of the river for use during the summer season. The water would travel a distance of four miles before the irrigated land would be reached, and for three miles of this distance it would pass through tunnels. The Public Works Department has not sought guarantees from the farmers who will benefit by the scheme, but Mr Ball stated that it was known that a keen demand for water existed. The country would reap the benefit of enormously increased production.