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law relating to the financing of bodies in gold-mining districts in the North Island of New Zealand I propose now to leave these considerations, and refer to an,,.he, class of evidence which I intend to submit to the ( ommission. ,\ good deal of evidence was placed before the Commission regarding Hoods Much was said about the nature of the Hood of the present year, and a good deal was also said about the flood in 1907. By this time I think it is very evident that the flood of 1907 was one o| a special character. It was one that was very general all over the Province of Auckland It brought destruction not merely in the Ohinemuri district, but also in other parts of the province extending from the North Cape down to Lake Taupo. [< is in the minds of every one here that bridges were washed away in very large numbers, and a great deal of damage done to railway and roads. 11„- Waikato hue for a distance extending between Huntlv and Pokeno was under water for nearly a month, and railway communication was interrupted.' That circumstance shows that the flood was one not special to the Ohinemuri, and not referable to any of the peculiar conditions affecting this river. With regard to the flood of 1910- of a few weeks ago—we had certainly a most extraordinary state of affairs We had a state of affairs that is certainly without parallel in the records of New Zealand—a state of affairs that is only paralleled in the records of rainfall in two instances. There fell at Waihi during a period of fourteen consecutive hours 14 in of rain That accounted I'm the Hood of the year 1910. I would invite your attention to the peculiar topographical features of Waihi. You have been there, and you have seen that it is a huge basin surrounded on all sides by hills. It is, as it were, a very large bottle with an extremely narrow neck through the Karangahake Gorge. I cannot recall what the acreage of the plains is, but I intend to call (he evidence of witnesses who will show the quantity of waver that fell upon these plains, represented by ihe 14 in. of rain, and then you will be in a position to imagine for yourself how tremendous a volume of water poured down that rift between the mountains and scattered itself over the surrounding plains. There was nothing extraordinary in its doing so: it is what one would have expected in the circumstances. Now, in regard to a remedy, it is not in the province of the Waihi Borough Council lo suggest a remedy. The Waihi llorough Council does not cause Ihe evils, and ye, the suggestion made is that it should pay for them. It does not cause the evils and remedies will be suggested, I take it, from other quarters. What .iocs appear to be a very obvious partial cause of the trouble consists, no doubt, in the accumulation of willows. ] have been fortunate enough to have had placed before me a statement by gentlemen who have had some experience as to the effect of willows upon the flood-waters of streams, as to the quantity of la nd thai was placed under water by these willows, as to the steps that were taken to remedy the nuisance, and as to the very satisfactory results obtained in consequence of it. That evidence relates to a district in the Waikato—a portion of the Waipa County. There are two streams there—the Mangapiko and the Mangahoe. In one of these —I cannot recall which it was at the present lime there was a very large growth of willows on both banks of the stream, with the consequence that when the waters rose their course was impeded, and they overflowed their banks, and that left under water a very hug,- area of Ihe surrounding country. 'This became such a serious trouble that steps were taken to get rid of the nuisance. The willows were ringed and some injection was put into the trees, with the result thai all the trees died. Men were employed lo take up the rotten branches as they fell from time to time. The consequence of that is that'the Hood-waters ceased to overflow '.he surrounding country, and all that area—l think it amounts to 1,500 or 2.00(1 acres—i.s now land under cultivation, and forms some of the finest dairying country in the Waikato. There was a somewhat similar experience in the ease of the Mangapiko. It was found that the willows retarded the How of water; and the removal of the willows has had the result of removing to a very large extent the mischiefs that arose through the water overflowing the batiks of the stream. 1 pass on from that, and I wish to refer to the question of the alleged deposit of silt in that portion of the Waihou below the Junction. 1 propose to call witnesses who will prove lhat they took samples from the river at various points below the Junction, arid for the purpose of comparison they also took samples in the upper "Waihou as far back as above Te Aroha. Ihese samples have been examined, and the evidence that will be placed before you will be that .here have lieen samples so line taken above Te Aroha, where no tailings are discharged, where no tailings ever have been discharged—thai they are as hue as the samples thai were taken from the lower Waihou. .1//-. Mitchelson: Tailings have been discharged into the upper Waihou above Te Aroha. Mr. MeVeagh: Yes, at Waiorongomai; but these samples were taken above there, at the Cordon Settlement, at a place where, I am informed, no tailings ever were discharged, and they * are as tine as the samples that were taken in the lower Waihou. The method by which these tailings wen- taken will be described by the engineer, wdio made a special appliance forth,- purpose. It does not consist of a jam-tin on the end of a pole ; he had a tul>e, of which he has prepared a diagram. which will illustrate the special method that he adopted for the purpose of securing fair samples of the tailings: ami a gentleman who is connected with the Mines Department al Waihi —the Director of the School of Mines—will advise what the result of his examination was. lhat is an outline of the case I intend to put before you on behalf of the Waihi Borough Council. I would therefore ask —as I know it will—that it receive very grave consideration. I would ask that this Commission should not overlook the special demands and the special requirements of a large community of rapid growth in a goldfields township. 1 would ask the Commission to bear in mind the special conditions that apply to that that do not apply to the case of other townships of a permanent character, where you have all the elements of stability, where the community does not rest for its ver\ existence upon merely one industry, as Waihi does, but where thej have other things upon which they may rest. These are considerations which are proper to be borne in mind, and these are considerations which ought to influence the Commission in coming to its conclusions upon the evidence which I propose to place before it.