CITY'S WATER

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 119, 16 November 1932, Page 10

CITY'S WATER

SOURCE OF SUPPLY

EYES ON HUTT VALLEY

!& EESTKICTING CLAUSE

An endeavour by the Labour, member "for Hutt (Mr. W. Nash) to have inserted.in the Wellington City Em-

powering and Amendment Bill a now

clause restraining the "Wellington City , Council's rights to take supplies of artesian water from the Hutt- Valley led to a protracted discussion in the House of/-Representatives last night when'the Bill came up for committal. The move was strenuously opposed by the member in^chargo of the Bill, Mr. E. Semple (Labour, Wellington East), but on a division Mr. Nash won the day. by 28 Votes.to 24. The Bill was passed the addition of the new clause. The new clause proposed by Mr. Nash sought' to provide' that the council should not take water from any -well, sunk in any of the boroughs of Petone, liowerHutt, and Upper Hutt, of in any • land owned by. or within the jurisdiction of the Hutt, River Board, savo ' -w{th .the. consent of. the Hutt River ■ Board and of the Borough Council con- : trolling the land, and subject to such conditions as: might be imposed by those bodies. In the event of a diminution, of the Avatar supply of any bor-

oughasi a result of the operations of the council, it was proposed to empower the affected bbrough to require the City <2ouncil to discontinue taKXng the water, or to take only such quantities as were specified. It was proposed that the council should have the right to appeal within one month either to a Magistrate •pf.-tho. Engineer-in-Chief of the Public AVorks Department, whose decision should be binding.' . HUTT VALLEY SUPPLIES. , * Mr. Nash said that, the Bill provided if or the diversion of loan, money to.enable the City Council to extend its •waterworks sekeme. One of the projofials was the. exploration of an artes^ San water supply in. the Hutfc Valley. Tho local authorities in the Hutt .Valley were unanimous. in; : the opinion that the action of the City. Council in drawing, artesian ■ ■water from their > area might detrimentally, affect their own supply. The purpose of tho amendment was to seek a provision, that if tho water supply were affected, the operations of the City Council should cease, and the .matter should be considered by-an independent arbitrator.

The Prime Minister (the: Right-Hon. G. W. Forbes): Was ■ this. brought before the Local Bills Committee?

Mr. Nash: It was mentioned when ;tho Committee. met.' j[t was. also reported on. by the-Wellingtori waterworks .engineer and, the ■Wellington City ■.Solicitor. .■ ; I was not present and tlie matter may have been debated. The local bodies affected had no: chance of being heard in. connection with the matter. I submit they 'should have been heard. ■ ...

f ! Mr. Nash, went, on to say that since ■. the meeting of the Local Bills Committee, he had endeavoured to reach Borne agreement by negotiation, but iwithout- success. If the Wellington .City Council' continued its present operations it iiiight detrimentally affect the water supply of both Lower Hutt and Petone. > ■■ . ' '" LEFT WITH_THE "SWAG." ' ... i3ir. '.Semple said.that the.Wellington 'Pity Council would have ;to oppose the amendment. He outlined the history tlie negotiations in connection with jthe;.water supply for: Wellington, and eaid_ that.some years.ago,there had been ; dedicated to tho Wellington City Coun,cil^andthe adjoining districts a splendid catchment -area .of 70,000 acres at Akatarawa. A.board had been formed ;with the idea of developing the new catchment area/-but after some little time' the'other local authorities with-drew-and left the City Council "with the;"swag." The council was cornpelled'to look.for.other sources of stip.VP^v ■ Wellington was'satisfied that in ,a few.years difficulty w6uld be experi-' enced in getting sufficient water , for ithe city's needs. A report had been obtained from, a geologist who had proved that there was ample water in .the-Valley to supply-not only Lower •Htttt,' Petone, and other small adjoin- "• ing; districts, but tho whole of Wei-' . lipgton as. well. ' On the basis of that

.report bores were, put down and a good supply of water"was '-discovered. The position-at present 'was that the Wellington City Council was.boring on its cwnland and, indeed, had the right to .continue to do so without coming to Parliament.' The only reason the council was approaching Parliament was to'secure authority to' transfer portion of the 1920 water loan.*' The Lower JKutt and Petone Borough Councils were trying to take'advantage' of the position in order to deprive Wellington of 'its legal rights. They were trying to shelter behind the Bill for that purpose. *'We think it is altogether wrong," ;said Mr. Semple.''We have rights under the common law, and we don't pro pose to. accept' the amendment.''

; A MATTER OF EQUITY. Mr. "Nashi said he was not questioning the rights: of the City Council, but he lvas questioning the equity of the proposal., Mr. Semple's" statement" of the position in regard to. the Wellington " district water supply was substantially correct. Wellington had certainly been left on:its own with-the exception of the'Hutt County Council.- At present the "Wellington City Council completely controlled all the gravity of .water supplies in .the district. The city owned a f strip of 16ft of land on Gear Island and was'boring it for water. In order to do that it had had to obtain the con- ■ sent of the Hutt Biver Board,- but the , board had laid down a proviso that in the event of the diminution of supplies in the Hutt Valley, the "council should cease its boring operations. Mr. Nash said his main concern was that the supply in the Hutt Valley should not be detrimentally affected. His amendment gave the right to the City Council'to. go to an independent arbitrator, and he could not understand the objection that,was being raised. There was no.desire on the part of the Hutt Valley authorities to' stop' Wellington City from getting all the supplies it. requirx .cd,but there.was a desire to protect the interests of the people in the Val- • .2ey v - '.....:. A REASONABLE ATTITUDE. The Hon. A. D. McLeod (Government, Waif a'rapa)'. said he was in- full sympathy rath the amendment/ and the Hutt County Council had asked . him to. protest against the powers be- ; ing sought by the Wellington City . .Council. The attitude adopted by Mr. ■ 'Nash was a very reasonable one. Mr. F. W. Sehramm (Labour, Auckland East) opposed ■ the amendment as the local authorities'were given too much power. '. Mr. C.' H. Clinkard (Government, ftotorua). said:that the attitude of the City Council was quite unreasonable. '-- What right had the city to deprive the other local bodies of their only source 'of supply? Surely the requirements of the local bodies in the district from which the water was secured should be fully satisfied before any attempt was made to deprive them of those supplies. He could not understand why the amendment was unacceptable to the promoters of the Bill. . ■

, Mr. M. J. Savage (Labour, Auckland ;West) said it appeared that the City Council had been placed in a secondary position. Petone. arid Lower Hutt

should have the right to appeal against what the council was doing, but the amendment placed, the city in the position of appellant. MERE BARNACLES. Mr. E. McKeen (Labour, Wellington South) said it appeared to him that tho amendment was the excuse for some members to oppose the proposals contained in the Bill. It was extraordinary to think that a number of small local bodies were standing in the way of the progress of Wellington city. They wore acting as barnacles on the ship of progress. Mr. E. A. Wright (Government, Wellington Suburbs) said that in order to strengthen his case Mr. Nash would have to prove that there was a definite danger of the Hutt Valley's supply of water being detrimentally affected, and he had not proved that. The expert evidence showed definitely that there was no such danger. ' The Minister of Lands (the Hon. E. A. Eansom) said the House was entitled to more" information than had been givon up to the present, but on the face of it it appeared that consumers of water in the Hutt Valley should have some measure of protection.! As an old resident of the Hutt Valley, he knew that the supply of water there was not very free. Mr. Mcljeen': Do you contradict the geologist's report? Mr. Eausom suggested that an endeavour should be made to arrive at some amicable arrangement. Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Labour, j Christchurch East) said it was only common sense that there should be unanimity on the part of the con-' tiguous local bodies in regard to water supply. It was evident that the Wellington City Council could not get an adequate water supply without going outside the city. The council was proposing to bore for water on its own property.

Mr. W. A. Veiteh (Government, Wanganui) said it was apparent that the object of the City-Council was to drag the Hutfc and Petone councils into a water scheme which they did not require.

Mr. W. Nash said some day' Wellington would be a suburb of the Hutt Vallej-, which had a population- of 30,000 people. (Laughter.) The whole febject of his amendmeut was to ensure that the .water supply of the Hutt Valley was not adversely affected. ...: v . , '■ ,

MivGr. E. Sykos (Government, Masterton) agreed that the, time was coming when Wellington would be a 'suburb of the valley. The Hutt Valley had a! distinct claim on its artesian water-supplies. ■■"■■. SOMETHING FOREIGN. ,The. Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. Al Hamilton)- suggested that an: endeavour was being made to put somo-thing-in the Bill which was quite foreign to it. The Wellington City Council already had the power to go ahead:with, its boring operations and if the clause- suggested were adopted- the council could drop the Bill altogether 3nd. continue boring. Mr.- Semple said the City Council had tnado- all- the necessary : investigations regarding the supply of water before it decided to-promote .the Bill. It was never intended to take away from the Hutt or Petone their share of the water that came down the Hutt "Valley. The city engineers, and the geologist agreed that there was an underground river- passing right through the Hutt "Valley, leaving the surface beyond Trentham. and coming right through the valley and underneath the harbour. OHe did not think anyone could ever remember the Hutt river running dry. He was inclined to think that the opposition against the Bill was superficial.. The Petone: ana Hutt Borough Councils were merely taking advantage of the position. • If the clause were agreed to, the council could do only one thing, and that was'to drop the Bill and go on with the boring operations. .''. ..'After some further discussion, Mr. Nash agreed to add a proviso to the new clause-to the effect that in the event of the Hutt Valley authorities withholding consent, the matter should be i-eferred to a Magistrate or the Engineer-in-Chief •of the Public Works Department for arbitration, but Mr. Semple said that this would not get over the difficulty. : , - Mr., Nash >was given permission to amend his clause on- the lines suggested, and on a division the clause as amended', was inserted in. the Bill by 28 votes to 24." The division, list' was as follows:— ''. Noes (24): ' Armstrong McKeen Broadfobt McSkimming Coates Macmillan ; Cobbe Murdoch " . Coleman ; J. A. Nash Dickie : Ngata Endean ■ . • Richards Forbes • /Savage r Hamilton Schramm Henare Semple Jull Te Tomo Langstone Wright ■ Ayes (28):, Ansell ,-, McLeod Atmore " Macpherson , Burnett J. N. Massey Campbell - W. W. Ma?sey Clinkard V Munro Field . - W. Nash Hawke ,; Poison H.;E. Holland Bansbm .Howard' Beid ■ . Jones , Stuart . Kyle ■ ■ 4 ■ Sykes Linklater '■ Veitch Lye Williams McDougall. Young

The Bill was passed as. amended,