GREYMOUTH NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2915, 26 January 1910, Page 67

GREYMOUTH NOTES.

£Fbom Oxra Own Cobbespondent.) GREYMOUTH, January 24. In regard to the proposal of the Railway Department and the shipping oompaiies to charge freight on timber for Australia by actual instead of by invoice measurement, it is understood that as a result of the representations made by the sawmillers the old system of charging will be reverted to. Settlers in the Irachbonnie district are becoming anxious on account of the encroachment of the Teramakau River. The danger is daily becoming a severe menace owing to the narrow neck of ground, now only about a chain in width, which prevents the River Teramakau from breaking through into the Orangipuki, thence into the Lake Brunner, and subsequently finding its way through that lake into the Grey River. The local civil engineer is surprised at the apathy displayed by the public of the district on this vastly important question, as it is in his opinion one that thrtatens a grea'b deal of the land in the Grey County, particularly the low-lying lands of the lake district, the lands and bridges in the Arnold district, and last, but not least, the town of Greymouth and its improvements. He points out that the effect of leaving.a chain or so of land betwten the Teramakau and the Orangipuki unprovided with a stop bank must be followed by a scour in flood times, which will ca.rry immense quantities of tailings into the lake and raise the water of the lake to such an extent that it will at a great rate •through the small course of the Arnold, which is not large enough to carry any more than its present allowance. Thus in flood time it will overflow the lands alongside it, and wash away the sawmillers bridges and so forth, and if it happens that the Grey is in flood, will increase this so greatly as to make an " Old Man " flood of it very speedily, and there is no telling what might happen.