A BOLD PROJECT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 6

A BOLD PROJECT.

There is certainly everything in favour of a thorough investigation of the proposal to drain the Makuri Swamp. A scheme which will convert over two thousand acres of waste land into dairy farms and improve other land now affected by swamp conditions is a project any district would be wise to approach with all sympathy. The proposal made by the State is to treat the reclamation of the Makuri Swamp as relief work on a large scale, to utilise modem plant and methods for draining, clearing and reading and to ask the landowners'whose sections will be improved by the new works to bear a fair share of their cost by giving a proportion of their holdings back to the State. The terms suggested are a payment in land equal to 40 per cent, of the cost of the services given. The cost of the reclamation is estimated at about £lO per acre, and it is thought it would increase the value of the sections affected from their present value of £8 to £2O per acre. All the estimates are admittedly tentative, and there is wisdom in settlers approaching the scheme with caution. To request the Government to proceed with detailed surveys and estimates is a step that can be thoroughly justified, and if further inquiry indicates that the preliminary estimates of costs and of values are fairly reliable the completion of the work should be of considerable value to Taranaki. It is to be hoped the Government

will consent to carry out the detailed surveys, and that these will prove the reclamation a profitable investment for the present settlers and for the State, besides providing avenues of employment for those who are anxiously seeking them.