Draining the rain off the plain
A South Taranaki man who has spent more than 33 years overseeing the care of around 50 kilometres of drains originally built about 120 years ago to protect farms in his area, is stepping down.
Ray Willy farms at Ngaere, and reckons it’s the best dairying country in the world.
It wouldn’t happen now, but in the early 21st century, the Ngaere swamp, a vast and ancient wetland, was drained and developed into farms.
Willy was 13 in 1958 when the Government did a major upgrade, which included widening and deepening the main drains and subsidiary drains together with the construction of bridges and culvert crossings.
‘‘I remember as a kid, it was wet as,’’ he said. Now, the land is good for cutting silage off.
The arrangement was that landowners were responsible for maintaining the drains that flow off their farms to the main network, and the Eltham Drainage Committee oversaw the entire network.
Willy has just stepped down after at least 33 years as a member, then chairman, of the committee.
A weather event just before Christmas demonstrated the worth of the drainage network, he said. ‘‘We had a massive downpour on December 19, there was a slip on the Mangamingi saddle, and about 30 to 40mm of rain in the paddocks, but the next day, it was all gone, and there was no silt,’’ he said.
He joined the committee in the late 1980s, after someone else stepped down, but he was ready to pass the voluntary role on.
‘‘I’m pulling the plug,’’ he said. ‘‘One of our other members, Ken Rye, did 56 years, and I don’t want to beat his record. I’m getting out while the going’s good.’’
Since the local body reforms in 1989, the committee has been run by the South Taranaki District Council, with representation from the Stratford District Council because the area it covers is in both districts.
The original board was constituted in 1901 and has its own Act of Parliament, the
Eltham Drainage Board Act, 1914.
Meetings are relaxed nobody wears a suit, and everyone helps set out the tables and chairs before the meeting.
One of their main tasks for the year is getting together to go and inspect the entire network before winter, to see where it needs spraying or other maintenance.
Jonathon Perry, whose father was also a committee member years ago, was elected as chairman last week.
Willy was presented with a kowhai tree and a certificate by South Taranaki deputy mayor Rob Northcott. –