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iD. \V. MeAKTHUK.

120. Do you think that the judicious erection of stop-banks would improve matters?— Yes, it would save a lot of flooding; but it would have to be done with great care. There are places on the river where if a little attention had been given, with a day or two's labour, hundreds of pounds of loss would have been saved. 121. Mr. Hanna.] A reference has been made to the report of Mr. Metcalfe. He also recommends a cut at Pereniki's Bend. Do you object to it. and, if so, what are your objections? —You would be putting all the fall in the present three miles and a half of river into about half a mile, and you would have such a rapid current there it would draw everything out of the river: it would be carried further down the river. 122. To the navigable parts of the river/ —Yes: that is what I have always said. 123. The Chairman.] Can you give us an idea of what the fall is in the three miles and a half? —1 think it is only 3£ ft., but 1 have never taken the levels. Mr. Bray: Nine inches and a half from actual water-level. 124. Mr. Mueller.] You have heard Mr. Bray's statement as to the fall in that distance: do you still adhere to your previous opinion that this fall would create too much of a scour altogether? —Yes. 125. Supposing the river were hist cleared of the tailings that are in it. would not that cut be a great benefit for the future getting-away of the water?-—No: 1 expressed an opinion about that cm before the tailings were ever causing any nuisance at all. My opinion was asked about it twelve or fourteen years ago. My reply was that it would lower the Hood by many feet if that cut was made: but in doing good to one part of the place you would be doing harm to the people down I Kilo w. 126. You say this water comes over the bank at Mackaytown and comes across the country to the Waihou? —Yes. 127. And this cut, you say, would create such a torrent that the lower land would Ix- flooded .' — Yes. 128. What land would be flooded still more.' —Hound about the Junction. 129. Even supposing the present deposit of tailings were cleared out of the river?— Yes. 130. You think the cut would probably save Paeroa from being flooded?— Yes, it would lower the level of the flood-water at Paeroa. 131. You remember the flood in March last? — Yes; there was not a match-box full of silt on the paddocks at Crosbie's. 132. The willows, you say, impede .he current considerably?— Yes. 133. And you say the cross-section is considerably affected?— Yes. 1.'14. And that, you say, naturally causes the river to overflow its banks.'—lt helps it to do so. 135. Supposing the willows are cut down, that would cans,' a quicker flow of the river: would that not tend to shift the silt in the river further down ?—Yes. 136. I suppose you admit that on the banks of the lower Waihou, from the Junction as fa! down as Netherton, there are deposits of tailings .'--Yes. 137. That, I suppose, narrows the river cross-sect ion .' To a certain extent. 138. And if that were still further narrowed by a further deposit, it would make the flooding still more frequent? —It would : but if you cut ihe willows down in the upper Waihou you would allow all the drainage of the valley to keep within the banks of the river. You would bring it all down past the Junction, and scour out the channel: it would thence go out to the sea. and carry with it three parts of the stuff that is now being deposited. 139. Do you mean to say that the extra flow of water would scour away that bank, and not simply flow over all the countryside? —Yes, provided you trained the current properly with a groin. At present when there is a Hood, most of it goes over the top. 140. You reckon it would sweep that bank away.'—Yes, if it continues lower down. 141. Supposing even you did that, and mining operations were to take place in the uppei Waihou at Waiorongomai, the tailings would come down the upper Waihou? —Yes. 142. And, according to what you state, willows would collect things: would the stuff not be distributed in the upper Waihou? —Yes, it would gradually come down. 143. Talking about the last Hood of 1910, you consider that the water which affected Thorp's Bend came from the Waihou about a mile above ihe Junction? —I think so. 144. Where were you when that flood was at its height in March, 1910?— In Waihi. 145. You did not see the Waihou during that flood?—No: but 1 went there afterwards, and i raced the direction of it from the scour it had made. 146. Do you know whether the Waihou at Te Aroha was in flood at all in March?—l do not know. 147. Did you not hear that the Waihou was not even bank-high at Te Aroha?—l heard there was not much of a flood there in March. 148. So that, from the effect of what you saw of the flood, if the water had gone across at the place you indicated, would you not think it had been caused by the blocking at the Junction, and the Waihou waters being blocked back?—The blocking at the Junction will no, lower the water in the Waihou. 149. Will it not tend to raise the height of that water? —Yes, very little. 150. You know that the flood of 1907 did a lot of damage in the Ohinemuri and Waihou Vallev?—Yes. 151. As to the sample you took at the island at the mouth of the Hape Creek, are you certain you took it ft. below the surface?— Yes. 152. Was the surface of the island at that place similar to what you got at 7A ft.?—No ; what I got at 7i ft. was coarse pumice sand. It 3. And the surface was tailings or silt? —Yes.