The Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3443, 5 March 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1874

The “shrewd business men” who have the direction of the affairs of the Dunedin Water works Company do not appear to be gifted with that degree of foresight that will rc concile the people of Dunedin to their monopoly. We can quite understand the petty spite of Tom M’ylbs, who 1 owes Jack NOakes a grudge because Jack, as agent or Lord Demos, would not buy Tom out of biholding at his own price. It is easy to peceive that Tom and Jack will take every opportunity of shewing their teeth at each other. Whenever Tom can get a slant aJack he- is down upon him. Whatever may be Tom’s secret motives, and although hi may be ultimately dependent upon the long suffering and good temper of Lord Demos for the continuation of bis monopoly, he carries it with a high hand, flourishes his list in Jack’s face, charges him with impertinence and bounce, and says neither Lord Demos nor Jack shall have a drink of water out of his tank unless he pays Tom’s price for it. Jack wants water to keep the dust down on Lord Demos’s estate. He points out that the tenants have their clothes spoilt, their cabbages covered with grit, so that their teeth are blunted in masticating tliera, their flesh meat is powdered with impalpably ground basalt, their roads are suffocating in the sunshine and mud-paste in the rain. A sprinkling from Tom’s cistern would cure all this : it is running over but no ! Tom won’t let Lord Dem s nave the water unless he comes down handsomely. He is too wide-awake, however, to tell his Lordship so; and throws the blame upon his agent, poor Jack.- He says Jack put his tongue in his check, to insult him: so Lord Demos’s tenants shall not slake the dust from his tank unless his Lordship pays full price; Jack boubced him, so they shall not ha ve water to bathe *O, nor wash their clothes in, unless Lord Demob pays full price : Jack threatened to set up an opposition shop —quite enough ! Not a drop of water shall be used from that tank unless it is paid for to the full, drop by drop. The real secret may be that Tom feels his position a little shaky. Lord Demos’s tenants grumble and growl, and call him grasping ahd greedy; and Jack is a bit of a blunderer and a lout. He writes letters that say what he did not mean, or if he meant it, he should not have said so. Neither is Tom a first-rate scribe. He says queer things in a nasty way, and does nasty things in a queer way But then ho wants to get a good price for his tank, and thinks, as Jack, unless forced, is not likely to buy it at Tom’s price, he will bother and harass him until-he will be glad to have it on any terms. ;

Before the world two men acting in such a way appear ridiculous ; nor do we see that two i orporations appear less so. "When the Waterworks Company refuse to supply the Corporation with water excepting at full prices, they are not dealing with the Corporation, but with the citizens. The reply is not to his Worship the Mayor and Messrs the Town Councillors, but to the inhabitants of Dunedin. We quite agree that if the Corporation'refused to co-operate with the Waterworks Company incbecking waste it was losing sight of an obvious duty ; nor do we think that any impediment to the extension of the works would be held justifiable by the inhabitants of the City ; for even in prospect of an ultimate purchase of the Company’s property, the cost of that extension must have been incurred either before or after the bargain was concluded. What we condemn is the narrow spirit displayed by the Company, taking into consideration the valuable monopoly they have acquired. The Corporation may be wrong, but the attitude taken by the Waterworks Company is only a repetition of the stand they made, which has rendered every effort to negotiate with them useless. If a more conciliatory tone and course of conduct were adopted by the Company; if aijreater regard to the interests of the city were manifested; and ,if greater 1 liberality w6fe fV|tKje4 in contributing to-

wards tbe health and comfort of the inhabitants, people generally would be ready to acknowledge tbe obligation they owe for tbe supply of water; and some slight return would be made for the handsome property, that, unexpected even by themselves, the shareholders fallen into !. But so long ''us every error by the Corporation* is made-. the excush for : bringing into exercise the excessive powers held by the Company, to the detriment of civic interests, however, shrewd the business men on the Directory may be/ like many other, shrewd busline s men they will over-reacVthemselves. Their iuea may possibly be that by refusing to meet the Corporation in supplying water for public purposes excepting at extreme rates, the Company only compensate themselves for some real or imaginary waste that the Corporation could and ought to have aided. ;,iu preventing. Such co-operation might lairly have been made a condition on which a supply on fair terms would be given; but the ground taken by the Company has shut out even this double opportunity of profit. They are not only likely to have the waste - continued, but they will lose; tbe revenue that would have accrued from the additional supply required. Nay', more, they have led to the first steps being taken to supersede them. They* have ia‘ : ' yited the first incision in their own throats. ;