DAMAGE BY FLOODS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1923, Page 6

DAMAGE BY FLOODS.

OTAGO’S “GARDEN OF EDEN.” MAY BECOME A WILDERNESS. A Christchurch Press reporter who returned on 'Saturday from the south writes that the once “Garden of Eden” of Otago, the Taieri Plain, has fallen on evil days. , The flood waters of April and May are still lying deep over the area of this once rich plain, and the prospect is a gloomy one for the unfortunate settlers. Everywhere houses and outbuildings are to be seen partly submerged by the slowly receding waters. There is a strong argument in this disaster for the residents* claim not for sympathy but for justice. There was no menace of floods when the Taieri Plain was settled; that only came about when gold sluicing and dredging started and the Government gazetted the river a sludge channel, collecting revenue from the concessions granted. Tremendous quantities of silt have been carried down from the upper reaches as a result of the mining; this has choked the flow of the water, the “bed” of the river now being higher in many quarters than the surrounding land. A rainfall which 30 or 40 years ago would have created only a fresh now causes devastation, and it is obvious that unless a speedier get-away for the water is provided the Taieri Plain will go out of cultivation.