STOOD SEVERE TEST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21014, 18 April 1938, Page 8

STOOD SEVERE TEST

Heavy Rain On Airport Confidence In Drainage Expressed Satisfaction with the manner in which the Timaru airport had stood up to its hardest test —two and a half inches of rain within a very short time —was expressed by Cr. W. H. Hall, chairman of the Works Committee of the Timaru Borough Council, who, accompanied by the Mayor (Mr P. B. Foote) and a representative of “The Timaru Herald,” visited the area on Saturday. Although it might appear to the layman, said Cr. Hall, that part of the ground had been flooded after the heavy rains, it was only surface water, and what paddock in South Canterbury was not feeling similar effects of the rain? The water was quickly draining away and the clearance would have been more expeditious had the airport been a completed job, with a pump, for which provision had been made, in action. The pump would be capable of handling all the water which fell on the airport itself. It would have no connection with the water which was carried by the present draining facilities into the Otipua Stream which had, during the recent heavy rains, proved in every way satisfactory under a very severe test. Evidence of the enormous discharge that took place from the main outlet to the sea was to be seen. The shingle has been scoured out for about 200 ft on either side of the wooden culvert, but no damage has been done to the structure, which proved itself strong and large enough to handle an excess volume of water. The Mayor explained that the further rain had made it impossible for the airport to be completed and officially opened within the life of the present Council, and that the arrangements for the opening would now probably be left to the incoming Council.