The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1873.

Auckland Star, Volume IV, Issue 1189, 14 November 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1873.

For the cause that lacks assistance, Forlthe wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do

We feel that it is almost necessary to make

a general apology for making mention of the snbject of the "Water Supply." Indeed so

wearied is the public ear with the term

that we wonder the repugnance to any mention of it hns not presented an insuperable barrier to the spread of "Good Templarism." And yet in the face of this general dislike of the threadbare subject we mean to make one earnest appeal that definite action should now and once for all be taken so that the question of "Water Supply," like that of the city sewer, may cease to vex the souls of quiet citizens. "Too many cooks spoil the broth" is an old, and homely, and truthful adage ; and had it not been that we aro cursed with the presence of a superfluity of civil engineers, the state of muddle in which every one is on this subject would have long since passed away. "In the multitude of councillors there is wisdom " is told us on authority not to be gainsaid, but there may be such an excess of wisdom that the ordinary intellect becomes fuddled, and tho result is equivalent to folly. Thus hath it been in the matter of Water Supply, and how to get out of the fog is now the great difficulty. There aro times in civil history when the appointment of a dictator is tho salvation of the country ; and if our City Council and our citizens could condescend on the selection of some individual capable of grasping the whole subject, and giving a final decision by which everyone would be bound, it appears to be the only available means for silencing the turbulence of the wild mob of civil engineers, and finally solving the question. Such a Deus ex machina appears^ in the person o* Mr Moriarty, the marine engineer of the Government of New South Wales, who is arriving per the Phcobe. He comes at the request of the Government of this colony to definitely solve the vexed questions of our harbour. And why should we not have the same service rendered in respect of the incomparably more bewildering question of our Water Supply ? We aro awaro that this course has been proposed, and we cannot understand on what grounds any opposition can be raised to it by any one really desirous of seeing a water supply of a satisfactory kind given to the city. It may be said that this would be but one other opinion of an engineer added to the already numerous opinions in the possession of the Council. But besides the fact that such work as this is the' specialty of Mr Moriarty, which it is not of any one of all the engineers who have already pronounced on the subject, the position and name of this officer are such that professional jealousies will bo hushed, and the public will feel confident that the scheme recommended is feasible, |and that its cost will be fairly stalled. It is needless to say that rumour has been very busy' with names and influences in relation to the competing sources for supplying water. Most if not the whole of these rumours have been idle; but whether this is so, or whether potent influences as dark as painted have been at work, the decisive opinion of an admitted authority in no way involved in previous discussions, and placed beyond even the suspicion of tampering, would bo unquestionably the most satisfactory means of solution. There is no time to be lost if such a course is taken. By the courtesy of his Government Mr Moriarty has been permitted now and on previous occasions to give the benefit of his' professional skill in knotty questions of public works in the sister colonies ; but his stay, we venture to say, must be necessarily 1 very short, and what is to be done must be done quickly.||We may suppose that after the amount of ruin caused recently by fire in this city the voice of opposition will now be dumb. But even if it were not so Mr opinion and recommendation and estimates would be the basis on which the question could be clearly submitted for the decision of the citizens. Those who have given any attention to proceedings in Parliament know that the rock on which the late measure in Parliament on this subject waa wrecked was the absence of a, feasible and definite scheme ; and we do not hesitato to say that until the

proposal is placed in distinct outline before the public eye it must continue to have that vague and shadowy shape which

engenders suspicions, and will continue to excite resistance. We know of no means of bringing this long struggle to an end un less in submitting the final decision to a foreign engineer of acknowledged ability. If there had been any Avay of wringing the necks of a dozen or two of our civil engineers before this great and important scheme had been submitted for public consideration the thing would have been settled long ago. As it is, with a number of these angry disputants posting themselves around every stream, and spring, and puddle in the district, and fighting each one for his own water hole like'grim death, there is no safety but in foreign intervention We do trust that the City Council wilj[ have the courage to cut the Gordian knot, and agreeing to accept the diatom of an impartial and able engineer deliver themselves from perplexity, and the city from the dangor of being swept by fire from off1 the face of the earth.