CITY ELECTIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 3249, 19 July 1873, Page 3

CITY ELECTIONS.

To the Editor. g IBj —It is to be hoped that the ratepayers will bring prominently before the candidates for the different Wards the urgent necessity of a thorough system of drainage being at once initiated for the City. It is much to be regretted that several of oar present Councillors do not see the immediate necessity for such a work, because, forsooth, it is not a reproductive one. Those gentlemen who put forward such reasons for delaying this work, however much they may profess anxiety to see it commenced, cannot in reality have thoroughly realised the importance of it. Were it not providentially visited by strong winds and heavy falls of rain, the low-lying parts of the City (especially in summer) would be absolutely breed-ing-ponds of pestilence. It would be a very nice question to consider when the drainage of the City would ever become a directly reproductive work. Had councillors in the Old Country waited till drainage became reproductive, millions of money might have been saved, though it is no exaggeration to say millions of lives might have been sacrificed in the saving This is no doubt an utilitarian age, but I am thankful to say that we have not come to such a pass as to value the saving of a few thousands of pounds as of equal value to the saving of a few thousands of lives. Were this City visited by a pestilence which in the nature of things is not at all unlikely, perhaps the death of a thousand of our ratepayers would cause the drainage question to dawn upon the of our Councillors in a new light. After all it is not auch an unproductive work as it may at first sight appear ; because in Bell Ward, for in stance, there are many swampy places that the proprietors will never dream of building upon until the drainage is completed. Were those spots built upon, the rates would be considerably increased ; besides, all the property in the City would be enhanced in value were the drainage as it should be. This is the most economical time to undertake the work, because if it is delayed, our ■treets will have to be broken up and destroyed just when they are beginning to become hardened and improved. Every day’s delay will increase the injury. Let us borrow the money now, and make posterity {iay its fair share of it. 1 hope our councilors will again seriously consider the matter, and I earnestly hope they may be convinced of the paramount necessity of at once proceeding with it, f< r in the words of Macbeth, “ If ’twere done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.”—l am, &c. f David R. Hay. Princes street, July 14.