THE DRAINAGE QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3379, 18 December 1873, Page 2

THE DRAINAGE QUESTION.

To the Editor, Sir, —l avow myself to be one of the requisitionists for the discussion of this question by the ordeal of ward meetings, in preference to general meetings of the whole ratepayers; but I confess, to my regret, to having yielded to the advice of Mr Sherwin to adjourn that meeting to the one held yesterday evening, and at which I would have been present had I not been takcnsuddeulyunwcll. Atthese meetings license Is taken to impute motives, and unseemly demonstrations are made to enlist feeling rather than reason, resulting often in unsatisfactory conclusions. Last night’s meeting is not unfairly thus depicted. One speaker imputed to those who endeavor to avert extremes in values, either of labor or material, the mean and cruel wish “that the poor should remain poor that the rich may become richer still.” I would remind this speaker of another Councillor and would-be Mayor, who asserts that none but those who have worked at and formed sewers could have a little knowledge of how to treat the sewerage question. Again, a threat is made against the South Ward councillor that, in speaking their minds freely and conscientiously, they will be overborne by the working classes. What a mercy it is that such would-be leaders of our honorable and well-devoted working classes are not at this auspicious occasion in leading places. Am I, an old stouetnuson, now in the sere and yellow leaf, to be told that my fellow workingmen of Dunedin, but of a more recent generation, participate in such pernicious and arrant spouting ? 1 don’t believe it. We are all in a free country, and it is unfair to pit class against class. I feel honored in my craft, and I feel bound to say, on its behalf, that such feelings are scouted by them; having witnessed the wild times of Victoria in 1833 and 1554, when stone-breaking was 10s a yard, masons got 40s, plasterers 50s a-day, and timber L 5 per 100. This brought about a crisis in ’SG, when work was scarcely obtainable at any wage. In this Province, five or six years ago, wages to all classes were on a par with present rates ; the reaction caused by this inflation brought the values down to 30 or 40 per cent, in ooth labor and material, no later than two or three years ago, and even at these unremunerative prices, labor was scarce and ill to be got, and material of all sorts hard of sale ; in fact, a general stagnation prevailed. I isk if, in the knowledge of these things, are the ratepayers of Dunedin to remain listless, and see their representatives proceeding with works at the present time, when labor is well employed and material high ? Works, be it observed, that are admittedly a dispute as to the necessity of their being done : at least the opposing views are nearly balanced. Certainly not. Public works of a general kind ought to be proceeded with to stead}' the value, not to inflate or depress the labor rate. “Heis a fool that cuts a stick to break his own head,” and I trust the ratepayers will see that on this work, as well as others they are paying for, their rates are spent on urgent works only; any other should remain undone, while works of a more private sort are in progress by the ratepayers themselves,

Two of the speakers, to enlist sympathy with their views, invited their opponents to visit Frederick, Cumberland, and St. Andrew streets, and the low lying lands adjacent, and this alone would get them converted to their views. This is misleading and begging the question ; the very fact of stagnant water lying in these localities, and stinks arising from the outflow from breweries and other public works, together with the surmised use of Eattray street sewers by the conveying of night soil by the big hotels and tine stores, ought to arouse Mr Notion's employers to a sense of their duty, which they so willingly undertake when canvassing for the honorable office. These public works and those buildings should be compelled to form sewers for their own accommodation ; those having low lying lands below channel level should be compelled to level up. Those parties who defile the Eattray street and other sewers with night soil should all be proceeded with and compelled to conform to the law. I simply call upon the councillors in these several Wards to go and perform their duty, and not come winning with their demonstrative adherents and try to wrest from the ratepayers expensive works to cover their incompetent action in doing their public duties. I say—Fill up low-lying lands ; compel obnoxious liquids from various works to he sewered at the expense of the several owners; summon all who connect their water-closes with any sewer, and do your duty ; and surface drainage will do Dunedin as it is serving Melbourne, by which action you will then only be doing jour duty.—l am, &c., A Cairns, Dunedin, December 17,