EROSION PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 January 1944, Page 2

EROSION PROBLEMS

WAIRARAPA CATCHMENT DISTRICT PROPOSAL TO SET UP BOARD. MEETING- TO BE CALLED. A Wairarapa Catchment District is proposed, under the provisions of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act, 1941. This Act provides for the constitution of catchment districts administered by catchment boards, which are given powers to control matters relating to soil conservation and river control, in the whole of a watershed area.

In a letter to the Mayor of Masterton, Mr. T. Jordan, the chairman of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council, Mr. W. L. Newnham, states that in so far as the Wairarapa district is concerned, the council is of the opinion that the only satisfactory solution to river and erosion problems is catchment board control, and that early steps should be taken to this end. At the suggestion of the council, the Mayor intends to call a meeting of Wairarapa local authorities early next month. The council’s proposals embrace the whole of the Ruamahanga river catchment area, with a catchment board of ten elective and five ncn-elective members.

The proposed district would include the whole of the country draining into the Ruarnahanga River, including Lakes Wairarapa and Onoke, and extending along the sea coast from Cape Turahirae to Cape Palliser. As such it would include the whole of the Featherston. Wairarapa South and Masterton counties, with the exception of a strip of country draining direct to the East Coast. It would also include portions of the Eketahuna, Castlepoint, and Mauriceville counties, draining into the Ruarnahanga River. The Act provides that the membership of a catchment board should be not more than 15 nor less than eight. Members are to be either elective or partly elective, in which case the number of elective members is to exceed the number of non-elective members. In the case of the Wairarapa Catchment Board, it is considered that the representation should be: Masterton County, 2; Wairarapa South County, 2; Featherston County, 2; Mauriceville, Eketahuna and Castlepoint counties combined, 1; Masterton borough, 2; Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough boroughs combined, 1; total elective members, 10; Government nominees, 5; grand total, 15. The Government nominees would be officers, one each from the Departments of Public Works, Lands and Survey, Forestry, Scientific and Industrial Research .and Agriculture.