THE RIVER COMMISSION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 42, 1 June 1917, Page 4

THE RIVER COMMISSION.

.... . SITTING AT BLENHEIM.

The-Wairau River Commission sat throughout Monday and resumed at 10 o’clock on Tuesday morning. The evidence was called respectively by Mr A. Rogers, for the Spring Creek River Board and other local authorities with related interests, and Mr C. H. Mills, for the Lower Wairau River Board. Mr D. P. Sinclair, Town Clerk, .attended in behalf of the Blenheim Borough Council. Invited to make any suggestion for the improvement of the present system of river conservation, Mr Rore said he thought an endeavour should be made to establish a comprehensive system. He favoured the idea of going into the question of forming an overflow channel to extend from the Wairau River at Tua Marina along a direct line at the foot of the hills to, the sea.' H. J. Stace, representing the Pukaka River Board and the Picton Road Board, gave evidence at length. He did not think the proposal to form an overflow channel from Tua Marina to the sea would be practicable. The route would, have to be taken over deep deposits of shingle and sand, and he did not think the water could bo held. Ho mentioned that a well bore was put down in that country to a depth of 400 feet and' passed through shingle and sand all the way. He did not think it would be possible to prevent the mouth of such a channel from filling up. To his mind a channel there would not afford any substantial measure of relief for the district as a whole. The water would come in from other directions higher up than the intake. He considered that in summer time the suggested diversion of water would detrimentally affect the Wairau Bar so far as shipping was concerned. He believed the bar would be rendered practically unworkable.

Thomas Jeffries, farmer,_ Fairhall, said that he had lived in this district for 59 years. In 1858 the whole country was practically in a state of nature. There was no tributary from the Wairau River where the Opawa now branched out from it. The water percolated through the shingle, and a small stream rose lower down and flowed away in the direction of Blenheim. tl was only in later years that the Opawa River commenced to develop into its present proportions. In summer time he could walk across the Opawa near the railway bridge in watertight boots. He used to drive bullock, teams from the vicinity _of Renwicktown to Onamalutu, crossing the Wairau River variously above and below Rock Ferry .There was no Opawa riverbed on that route in those days. The floods would take the nearest cut to the sea. They would go right across Tua Marina, which was an impenetrable swamp. In 1868, however, a record flood —the biggest he had ever seen here —occurred, extending right across the Plain from ono range of hills to the other. In 1864 he M r orked at Laery’s Breach on the scheme to keep the M'ater coming into the Opawa stream from the Wairau—the big river. As far as he could recollect the Provincial Government started this work. About £13,600 was thrown away on those operations. In 1879 the Lower Wairau River Board started to erect a lino of piles on the southern side of the Wairau River further west.- (That was the work that the Spring Creek River Board defeated by obtaining an injunction). Prior to the danger occurring at the Breach the Blenheim district did not suffer from floods from the Wairau River. It was subject to occasional inundations of smaller character from the Taylor River, Mill Creek, Fairhall Creek, and other small streams on the southern slope of the Wairau Plain.

Mr C. H. Mills, legal representative, described the leading features of the policy and the works of the Lower Wairau Board. He explained the significance of the series of groynes constructed on the southern bank of the Wairau River above the point where the Opawa River branches out, arfd the general plan of banking and the Overflow Channel. Mr MeCallum advocated that the Fairhall stream and the Mill Creek should be turned into the Opawa along a route where the Fairhall crossed the New Ren wick road. He was firmly of opinion that this diversion would greatly assist the cause of flood relief. It would divide up the considerable deposit of water from the watersheds of the southern part of the Wairau Plain and would benefit a large area of some of the best land in the district'.

Mr MeCallum was asked to give his opinion on the question of extending the rating area of his Board. He said the matter had been a sore point with the Board for many years. It was plain that many properties directly benefited by the Board’s expenditure should be included. He did not think, however, that anyone should be rated who was not afforded protection. Mr Mills mentioned the case of the Pelorus Road Board. He understood that that body would be prepared to attend to it’s own interests as far down as the Waikakaho stream.

The chairman suggested that a controlling authority with a comprehensive district might require that everything should be included that needed protection. Philip Rush, one of the oldest Marlborough settlers, carried his memory back to 1848, when he first came _ to Qrovetown. He advocated a fair division of the waters between the Wairau and Opawa Rivers. A considerable volume of other evidence was taken