MR POLAND'S VIEWS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXI, Issue 2723, 25 November 1910, Page 2

MR POLAND'S VIEWS.

" DEALING WITH A BIG EVIL "

Mr Poland (Ohinemuri), interviewed on the Bill, said it seemed evident that provision had been fairly well made for dealing with a big evil. In the material clauses of the Bill the recommendations of the Royal Commission, which went so fully into the question last May, seemed to have been given effect to. The amount of money required to be authorised should be ample and was as recommended by the Commission. The Ohinemuri River Board, which never did anything, was dissolved,, and the constitution of the board proposed in the Bill gave representation, to all interests. Mr Poland ; said be was especially pleased to see the provisions that a magistrate should inquire intcTall cTatmitMß for compensation for lands destroyed or^m

injured, tor quite a number or small - farmers had been almost ruined by the recent floods,, and this would give them a well-deserved - compensation * for .a portion of , their loss. The financial

aspect was a most important one, and here the Bill followed very closely the recommendations of the Commission, and he did not think there was likely to „ be much opposition to this part of the Bill. People at a distance who did.not know the circumstances under which the settlers in the valley of the Ohinemun and Waihou Rivers had been living for the past four or five years had uo idea of the leJief that' would be experienced by those people at the news that the Bill -has been introduced. He earn« estly hoped the Government would allow nothing to stand in the, way.of its being placed on the Statute Book this session.