RIVER CONTROL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21063, 15 June 1938, Page 6

RIVER CONTROL

Problem to be Tackled Small Boards To Go By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, June 14. The Government’s intention to give all possible assistance to repair flood damage on the East Coast was stated by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in reply to a deputation from the Wairoa County Council which waited upon him to-day. After hearing the representations, the Minister referred to the enormous amount of expenditure made necessary in the last two years through flooding in various parts of the Dominion. Rivers had been allowed to get out of control and thousands of acres of fertile land had been swept into the sea. he said. No data had been gathered to give the Public Works Department full knowledge of the cost and effect of river erosion. Little river boards had been set up all over the country and each one was blaming the other. “There has got to be a comprehensive ■survey of all these rivers ana the job must be tackled in a systematic, scientific way," the Minister continued. “The only way in my opinion is to set up a branch of the Public Works Department with competent engineers in charge to make this survey and prepare a plan so that we can tackle the job properly in the order of urgency of the works. And we will follow the thing right through until the remedy is applied from a national point of view. I have conferred with my best engineers and they agree with me on the question. River boards have got to get out of the road.” Costly "lamagc Mr Semple went on to refer to the recent Hawke's Bay floods and the contributing effect which the earthquakes in 1931 had had in loosening hillsides and allowing them to become waterlogged and slip away into valleys. Tire unfortunate feature of the floods was that the worst form of silt which covered pastures feet deep was on top and the land would be of little value for a long time. The whole thing was a major disaster, but the Government would not run away from the job. A rough estimate of the damage to highways, other roads and railways was about £400,000, and there was besides the present and prospective damage done to farm lands which could not be estimated because of hillsides being laid bare. The Government was considering ways and means of rehabilitating the area, and it would not run away from any problem no matter how big. The reopening of the road between Napier and Wairoa by the Public Works Department constituted a record for that type of work, said Mr Semple. With old fashioned methods it would have taken months to do what had taken w’eeks. The Mohaka viaduct and the Mohaka emergency landing ground had both played an important part in the work, otherwise some people might have starved to death. The counties had given their full co-operation. It was estimated that the damage to Hawke’s Bay County roads was £44,000, said the Minister, and he had a proposal ready to submit to the county when it was approved by the Minister of Finance. Maximum Assistance In the case of the Wairoa Comity the damage to ordinary highways and county roads was estimated at £34,000. The county had been the first in New Zealand to give its co-operation to a five year plan for improved backblock roads, and it now said that without assistance from the Government it would have to abandon its part in the plan. He did not want the county to do that, and he could give an assurance that the maximum amount of help would be given by the Government. He would give his decision co Mr E. L. Cullen M.P. in a day or two. On the question of labour for the work, Mr Semple said there were men available in other parts of New Zealand and they would have to go to the East Coast, if necessary. A man on the unemployment register had to go where he was sent and where work was in the national interests. If he did not he would get nothing.