The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1928. INADEQUATE WATER SUPPLY.

Evening Star, Issue 19786, 9 February 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1928. INADEQUATE WATER SUPPLY.

Thk City Council made a grave tactical mistake last night when it rejected the Anderson’s Bay petition concerning the shortage of water. The wording of the petition was certainly somewhat unconventional, but originality is rather to be welcomed than Downed upon, for it certainly lends to local politics an interest they too often lack. Further, no councillor will dare to deny that tho conditions on the higher levels of Anderson’s Bay justify plain speaking by the sufferers. The mayor appears to bo punctiliously concerned about maintaining tbe council’s dignity. But what about tho council’s honesty? Presumably the householders of Anderson’s Bay arc paying water rates on just tho same basis as the residents of other parts of the municipality. Tho chairman of tho Water Committee admits (hat the residents of parts of Anderson’s Bay are not getting water in anything like the same quantity as their morl fortunate fellow-citizens elsewhere. This is inequitable to a most galling degree. One can imagine tho feelings of a Bay resident observing hoses playing fiecly cm the gardens in the lower-lying sections along his route home, while ho knows for a certainty that on his arrival at his own house his taps will only emit a gurgle on being tin ned, that the household has been waterless all day, and that there is only an even-money chance of a tardily-emitted trickle from tho taps being obtainable somewhere between midnight and B a.in. This kind of treatment is not only inequitable; it amounts to the .obtaining of money by false pretences. The water rate is paid, and the water is not supplied. The language of the petition may not have been entirely respectful

and decorous, but under the circumstances it was remarkably temperate. The petition should have been received by the council, not in condescension, but iu downright humility. For the corporation is inextricably blameworthy. It is now many years since the ratepayers rejected the Lee Stream- proposal. Augmentation of existing supplies was then badly needed; it is far more urgently needed now. The corporation has all along been fully seized of this fact. And what lias been done? The Southern reservoir has been enlarged at great cost, it now being a hybrid between a storage and a service reservoir. But the currying capacity of the feeder of this basin, the Silvcrstream race, remains far below what it should bo. It is better than it was when years ago we first drew attention to its sievelike state, duo to gross neglect; but at a modest computation it still loses a third of the water en route from the sources of supply' to the Southern reservoir. One source of supply in this Silverstrearn system has been neglected until this week; the Powder Creek electric pump has been idle throughout this prolonged dry spell until Monday last, although it costs the City Council practically nothing to put it into ope. ation, since its motive power is derived from Waipori current. The fixed policy of discrediting the Silverstrearn system is still being pursued to the city’s and citizens’ great, injury and risk. The position is that yesterday, while the feeders of the various systems are diminishing, the amount of water stored was 116,291,000 gallons. By a curious coincidence advice came to hand by this morning’s mail that during one hot day in January Melbourne’s draw off readied the record figure of 116,000,000 gallons. That city, about twelve times the size of Dunedin, would use up in one day all the water at present stored in our reservoirs! What is the corporation doing in the matter? The city engineer is investigating possible new sources of supply. jThe matter has not yet reached even

tho report stage—at least, anything the engineer may have so far reported lias been treated by the committee as confidential, because no report has been made public. At the beginning of September last Cr Begg did make a statement giving the following list of works contemplated or being investigated:— A new impounding reservoir or reservoirs in the Waitati-Lcith catchment. New lending mains extending from Sullivan dam to Hoslyn, with a branch to Anderson’s Bay. A service reservoir at Anderson’s May, and possibly a water tower at Hoslyn.

But no speedy progress was promised by Cr Begg, who said there was little prospect of the city engineer’s report being made until the Waipori problems had been finally solved. There we have the reason—cupidity. The Waipori proposition promises monetary returns, because electric current is paid for on the basis of the ; mount consumed. But, as regards water for domestic purposes, the council is well aware that it can demand payment on a set scale without any regard to the amount supplied, and in some cases it furnishes next to no -supply at all just when tho need is most urgent. The reason given is that the corporation is unable to do any better. It is a confession of incompetence, served up with more than a spice of insouciance. The corporation must bo compelled to do better, and do it quickly. It is obligatory on the citizens of all other parts of Dunedin not only to observe the “ no-hoso ” injunction far more honestly and universally than at present, so as to enable the Anderson’s Bay victims to enjoy a better pressure for a little longer than part of tho “ wee, sum’ hours,” but to put their full weight behind their Anderson’s Bay neighbors, and demand as one community that the City Council 'awako from its lethargy in tho matter of a really adequate water supply.