i a iad lac 
Artuur.—On the Taieri River Floods. 99 
embankment, 6 chains in length and 15 feet high, would retain 217,800,000 
cubic feet over an area of 500 acres. The catchment area above this point 
is 59 square miles, which, with a rainfall run-off of 1°5 inches, gives a daily 
discharge of 205,603,200 cubic feet. The cost of this dam, if of masonry, 
I estimate at £8,115. There are other good sites on this river, but none 
on the Kyeburn, Sutton, or Lee Stream. : : 
Watpori Reservoir. 
The valley of the Waipori also offers facilities for impounding flood 
waters above the junction of the Verterburn, and near the outfall of the 
sludge-channel. I am not so familiar with this spot as with those sites 
above described, nor do I think it so good. Still, here also there is an 
area which I estimate at 900 acres suitable for a reservoir. An embank- 
ment or dam, 10 chains in length and 38 feet high, would impound about 
588,060,000 cubic feet of water, the inclination of the flat being 7 feet per 
mile. If of masonry, its cost would be £12,000; but probably a careful 
survey would show that the dam need not be go long, and, consequently, 
not so costly. This Waipori reservoir would not, of course, be a check on 
the floods of the Taieri itself, and may therefore be left out of consideration 
until the money required for its construction is available. At the same 
time, it would benefit the Henley estate and others of the low-lying lands 
in that quarter, while indirectly it would relieve the outflow of the Taieri 
by the lower gorge into the sea. 
In each of the above dams, self-acting sluices, openings or culverts, would 
be necessary, the particular form being a detail which need not here be 
gone into. 
Neither have I particularly referred to the embankment of the Taieri 
River on the Lower Taieri Plain, from Outram seawards. I would only 
remark that, while I think it probable the money spent on this might have 
been expended more profitably in the construction of dams further up the 
river in the interior, there can be no question as to the benefit the embank- 
ment has been to the lands on the right or west bank of the river. This, 
however, is secured at the expense of the lands on the east side of the 
river, of the channel of the river, and of the bridges on the river. 
In concluding this paper, I would say that the facts I have given go to 
prove that nearly all the flood-water which could be impounded at the 
Taieri Lake, may be confined above the Styx River at much less cost, 
and that an exhaustive survey should be initiated without loss of time, 
first to determine where the greatest rainfall occurs on the catchment area, 
and next the precise capabilities of the various reservoir sites which I have 
indicated, my own calculations of the latter being only approximate, 
