A. C. HT'BHARD.J

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13. And not from the Waihou River?— No. 11. Mr. Mueller.] Did he complete his job?-Yes. Shortly after he completed it another resh came, and here wen- more tailings „. the drain. I allowed tha, deposit to remain .here last winter. I had already shifted these deposits twice. Then- is not much fall in that country and il there is any deposit ,„ the outlet drain the tile drains will ~,,1. do their work This deposit m the drain is caused, in my opinio,,, by the water overflowing the banks above, and ids', by tilling m at the mouth of the drain. 15. Was the water overflowing above and also entering at the mouth of the drain?— Yes lb. And that is fro,,: the creek /-Yes. the creek and these drains form three sides of a square M onetime .he area enclosed in .hat square we considered was some of our best cropping-land _ 17. What area was enclosed in the square?— About 50 acres. There was very little apparenl risk „, cropping it. We had no trouble in harvesting our cops. We very rarely had a flood on i. that could do any harm. In January, 1907, 25 acres out of .he 50 acres was in oats and potaloes. Nearly the whole of the 25 acres was under water. Twenty acres of the 25 acres was m oats the remainder in potatoes. The oats were damaged by the water, but the damage was intensified by the deposit of silt lodged in the sheaves. We reckoned we should have about 35 tons o potatoes of. the o acres. We took about 14 tons: the remainder were rotten. We only sold 1 '" l 0 , "" s - We considered we lost about fcliio on the potatoes and £150 ~,, the oats 18. Mr. Myers.] Damaged by the flood /-No, the damage by the flood was intensified by the silt. I would like lo explain that we had another paddock of oats on the same land on high L'loumL It was damaged to some extent. We were able to sell it as chaff. The greater part of Ihe chaff on the area below was unsaleable on account of the silt in the straw. 19. Mr. Mueller.] If was whitewashed?—The silt was right through it 20. Describe the Komata Creek as regards the silting-up ?—When we took over the proper! v seventeen years ago ,t was a beautiful clear stream, with plenty of fish in it. Deep holes abounded in it. The lower sloping bank formed a natural fence in many places. 21. Was the creek 10 ft. down from the bank general!v ?—Yes, but there was a lower stopbank of 2ft. ,„- 3ft, and a sloping bank of perhaps Bft. or 10ft. The slopine- bank always carried good feed. At the present time most of the big holes have been filled up, and the slopins bank ot the creek is covered with tailings. 22. Which came down the Komata?—Yes; that is, for about half the distance down our boundary. They might have come from the mouth of the creek, but the slope is too o-reat to allow many to come up the creek. 23. Do you know when Komata was declared a sludge-channel ?—lt is a query whether it is a sludge-channel. . 24. Was it excluded from the original Proclamation?—The intention was to exclude it 1 have taken several legal opinions on the subject, and they do not all agree. 25. You say that about half your boundary has been affected in this way?—The lower half 26. The Chairman.] Why wis not the upper half affected if if comes down to the river?— There is too much fall from the Komata Peel's battery. T understand there is a fall of about 400 ft. 27. Mr. Mueller.] From the road down to the Junction of the creek with the river it is fairly Hal / Yes. and the creek is affected for a distance up by the tide. There are deposits of silt along the creek to where il is affected by the tide. It comes within 20 chains of the road. 28. On account of that you had to fence?—On account of the holes being filled and the sides changing I had to fence. 29. What is the acreage affected by the flood ?—About 200 acres. -'id. The Chairman.] In addition to certain silt on the banks of the creek above—a small amount ? -The creek will break over above the railway-line. Tt does not do any damage: the water gets away because I hero'is plenty of fall. 31 . Mr. Mueller.] You are suffering from Ihe want of local knowledge on the part of those who drew up the Proclamation ?—Yes. At one time very little damage was done by (he floods: when there was an overflow from the Komata Creek we very seldom had an overflow from the Waihou. 32. Have you noticed what length of time the water remains on your land compared with what used ~, happen?— During the January 1907 flood the water remained long enough on a portion of our land to kill all the grass. 33. Had that happened previously?—No, never. 34. Have you noticed any of the slimes or silt on the vegetation?—T noticed it particularly after th? last March flood. 35. What effect has that had upon cattle?—l have not noticed any effect on the cattle on the portion of the land T am speaking about, but the cattle would not look at the grass upon which the deposit was lodged until sonic considerable time afterwards, when the deposit had washed off. 36. Have you had to remove your cattle?— Yes. frequently off the low-lying portions. That is of late years. 37. You carry on dairy-farming as well as cropping?— Yes, generally all-round farming. 38. Have the floods had any particular effect on your dairy receipts?—We are in that position that if the low-lying ground is flooded we can shift the stock on to the high land. 39. You have a considerable area of high land?— Yes. 40. Can you give us any idea as to what effect the flood has upon the value of, say, that 200 acres?—Tf it were not subject to floods I consider I could make it just as valuable as the high land. 41. And what difference in values is there now, roughly?—T consider that the high land in its jiresent state and the land about the house and the railway-line is worth about £30 per acre 42. And the other land?— About £10.