CrEORGE. — On Watershed Districts. 121 



class, and there would be every inducement offered to the officers to lay out 

 works on a comprehensive system, leading in the end to great economy in 

 administration, and dispensing with the services of a large body of officials 

 now necessarily employed by every petty authority. 



It is impossible, within the hinits of a paper of this character, to discuss 

 the various interests that would be affected by the proposals, and the details 

 as to monetary matters, rating, and expenditm-e. The object of the paper 

 will be attained if the attention of those in authority is directed to the 

 advantages that would arise to the community by adopting the boundaries 

 of watersheds as pohtical boundaries. 



The river Thames, ua England, is perhaps the strongest case that exists 

 to show the advantages that would arise by a central authority controlling 

 a watershed. At every few miles along the river-bank a different local 

 government prevails, each with a separate system of management, of drain- 

 age, and of methods of polluting the river. The Metropolitan Board of Works, 

 the Eiver Conservators, the Thames Valley Main Drainage Board, the Lower 

 Thames Valley Drainage Board, the Board of Works, and various other 

 authorities, make feeble and abortive attempts to control these local govern- 

 ments. Isolated improvements are carried out, but there is no general 

 system, and the result is that more money is wasted by abortive works and 

 law proceedings than would suffice under systematic management to perform 

 all necessary works. 



The river Mauawatu, in the colony of New Zealand, is one where the 

 advantage of one authority controlling the whole watershed is apparent. 

 The river di'ains a large extent of country beyond the near dividing range of 

 mountains, and frequently heavy rains on the eastern or Wairarapa side of 

 the hills cause disastrous floods throughout the Manawatu district. There 

 is no doubt that a comprehensive system of works on the eastern side, with 

 the gradually deepening and straightening of the course of the river on the 

 western side, would materially prevent damage from floods. In the course 

 of time the eastern side may become thickly populated ; offensive drainage 

 may arise from manufacturing or mining pursuits, to the damage of those 

 on the western side ; which no authority, except the General Govern- 

 ment of the colony, can prevent. 



The alteration, above proposed, in the present method of defining pohti- 

 cal districts, is one that can at the present time be carried out without much 

 inconvenience, but every year creates vested interests, and renders an 

 improvement in the system more difficult and costly. 



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