Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JAN. 18, 1912. FLOOD PREVENTION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12664, 18 January 1912, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JAN. 18, 1912. FLOOD PREVENTION.

We need offer nd apology for returning again to the subject of the necessity for the protection of the » rich flats of this district from the danger of inundation by flood. It is a question vital to the interests of a large number of settlers, and not by any. means remote from the matter of the safety of the town. The. danger has been pointed out again and again m these columns, and is recognised by every competent observer who lias made a study of the situation. The Waipaoa river bed is filling up, with the denudation of the back country the floods are becoming more acute, and there are conditions now, not existing m years gone by, which make the probability of a disastrous invasion of the waters much stronger than it has ever .been' before. In a recent issue we recorded the enort that lias been made by xme of the Patutahi settlers to protectX his property ) against Hood, lired of waiting lor tiie Hiver Board and lor concerted action on the part of the settlers, Mr Andrew Tuohy has constructed a stop-bank, whien should aftord a considerable measure of protection. Mr Tuohy's ; action, however pr.iiseworthy and worthy oi emulation, is, however, , not the course tlmti we should like to see generally followed m dealing with the subject. The remedy required, from a district standpoint, is too big for individual treatment, and if the matter is left for enterprising settlers of the Tuohy, stamp we fear that the danger will be accentuated rather than reduced. .A stopbank . may save Mr Tuohy's land from flooding, but what about the land of the other ., fellow ? Bitter experience m Hawke's Bay has <shovm -tliat .-private stop-banks lead to an endless amount of; trouble and litigation and that they, are not the correct- or satisfactory provision to save a district from the ravages of flood. Experience m this district confirms that view, for everyone who gives the matter a moment's thought Mill recognise that since the construction of the railway embankment through the Makauri flats, wluch acts as a stopbank and saves a section* of the country from flooding, the floods have increased m volume over the . remaining and greater portion of the -country. • Similarly when the Gisborne-Napier . railway works proceed and an embankment- is raised through Matawhero to Patutahi, tlie small safety valve that was provided m the escape of the waters toward the Waikunae creek will be eliminated, and the waters will be pent up .more tlian ever m the region of Makauri. There will then be but the one escape, towards the Taruheru river, and it is not a remote contingency that m a heavy flood sufficient scour might be created to effect a diversion of the Waipaoa into the Taruheru. That may be an alarmist view of the situation, but it is one that cannot be set aside by any person who looks at the matter calmly and dispassionately. It is sufficiently serious to command the attention of every resident of Gisborne, and, at the risk of being charged with offering a- view depreciatory to the values of property m <this town, we would urge that our citizens should join issue with the country settlers and go into this flood question; whole-heartedly. Until a River Board is formed and some concerted .action taken: to prevent the overflow of the Waipaoa, > the district stands m danger of a flood' far greater and more serious m its effects than than any that 'has piteviously been known. The first course of action to be adopted should be 'tho^ VerrioVal 1 from the river bed of trees and other obstructions that are forming traps for silt and causing the bed of the stream to gradually ascend. The second imperative necessity, we Uelieve, "is not stopbanks, which at the be*st can be only a

palliative, but to straighten tho course I of tho stream. Tin's is tho only "1 ruo effective remedy, for so long as the 'Waipaoa retains the two tortuous "8"' curves that exist between WHerenga-a-hika and its junction with Arai creek, so long will the flood waters be dammed back and have a tendency tp overtop its banks. The building of dykes, whilst it may save a particular spot, will only tend to further confine and back up the waters, whereas astraight sweep out to sea would give them the speediest release, and most effectually minimise the tendency to overflow. The argument used m the course of an interview recorded m another column, presents the case m a lucid and convincing manner, and we should be glad to hear further expressions of opinion from people interested m the subject, so that the matter may be thoroughly discussed m all its various aspects, with the result, we trust, that the community will be awakened -from -a dangerous state of lethargy and will proceed to take some definite course of. action.