DRAINAGE MEETING, PAPANUI.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 912, 28 May 1877, Page 3

DRAINAGE MEETING, PAPANUI.

A meeting of ratepayers in Papanui, called by the Chairman of the Road Board, was held on Friday evening at the old schoolroom, to consider the proposed drainage scheme as affecting that district. There was a good attendance, and Mr J. L. Wilson was voted to the chair.

The Chairman explained the object for which the meeting had been called. All present were no doubt pretty well conversant by that time with Mr Carruthers's plans. The question was a very important one, and should in his opinion be treated with great care and caution. The people of Papauui had suffered much from the want of drainage. [A Voice— And we shall suffer a great deal more when we get it] —and on a level plain as in the Papanui district, the question of drainage assumed greater dimensions than in an undulating country. The apathy displayed by the people generally at the election of the Drainage Board was very reprehensible, as no one seemed to take any interest in it or care who was elected, though fortunately very responsible men after all had been chosen. Personally he had felt amazed that .many of the gentlemen composing the Board, who had hitherto given so much satisfaction in other public positions, had, to speak mildly, made a very great mistako in so hurriedly accepting Mr Carruthers's plans, which involved so large an amount of expenditure. Considering that the people will be so heavily rated to pay such a sum of money, he considered that the Board at least should have submitted the detail? to the ratepayers generally _ beforeaccepting such a scheme. In his opinion the Legislature never for one moment contemplated the removal of house slops or night soil in the Drainage Bill. In the continental and other old countries the question of the best method of drainage was still a vexed one., and it seemed to him somewhat presumptuou> that so young a country as ours should rush into an expenditure of three or four hundred thousand pounds in adopting a permanent plan of drainage, while tnie question

was still undecided by older countries He would not like to see the Board resign, many of whose members had done so much public good in other positions, and lie bad received an inkling that day that tlie Board wore likely to submit a modified plan of drainage which might meet with general approval. He hoped his information was correct, as he would not like to lose the services of many of those gentlemen. He regretted the absence of Mr Ollivier that evening, who had taken so warm an interest in the drainage question, and he would certainly have been present but for receiving a telegram that day from the G-eneral Government requiring certain statistics immediately, which would necessitate his nearly working all night. He would not detain them longer, but would call upon Mr Wynn Williams to address the meeting, and who, lie believed, had a resolution to propose. Mr Wynn Williams moved the following resolution: —" That in the opinion of this meeting it is unjust to call upon the outlying portions of the drainage district to contribute towards the cost of the construction of a drainage system that is entirely unaaclapted to the requirements of a rural population. That a much more simple and less expensive system of drainage is required than that proposed by Mr Carruthers, and this meeting sincerely hopes that the Board will not proceed with the scheme as set forth in the plans, and that the chairman be requested to forward a copy of these resolutions to the Chairman of the Drainage Board " He regretted the absence of Mr Ollivier that evening, and had received a note from that gentleman giving the reasons referred to by the chairman. The Drainage Board had to his mind acted unwisely in adopting the scheme proposed by Mr Carruthers, without first being very certain as to its cost, and they seemed to have no notion of what the ultimate cost of that system would be. Again, they had no definite information as to what was to become of the sewage after it was placed in the estuary. The Board had said they had been misrepresented in this matter, and that such was not their intention, but to his mind they positively determined to do this, as Mr Carruthers's report distinctly stated that the whole of the sewage of Christchurch was to flow into the estuary. If this were done, and the whole of the house slops and excreta from the city were led into the estiiary, the people of Heathcoto would certainly not be able to live in that district. His grounds of opposition to the Board were first, that they did not give any estimate of the cost of the work, and secondly that they would not positively show that the sewage would not flbw into the estuary. Mr Duncan had said that the Board did not intend to do this for the present, but it might bo done fifteen years hence, and the objection would be equally good then as now. [Applause.] Again, the present requirements of Christchurch did not require such an expensive system of drainage, and he w r as certain the Legislature, as he had distinctly stated before, never for one moment contemplated that such an elaborate scheme should be carried out at all, and if this scheme was so obnoxious to the people of Christchurch, how much more must it be to those of the outlying districts ? [Applause.] The chairman had referred to the action in other capacities of some of the members of the Board. He (Mr Williams) had also been very much surprised to see such men as Messrs Tancred, Harman, and Duncan —the former more especially, as he was a farmer himself —sit down and allow two members of that Board to domineer over them, and that those gentlemen should have assisted those members to adopt a plan which was only applicable to a town, and not to the country —[applause] — and the worst feature of all was that the _ inhabitants from the Heathcote to the river Styx, would have to pay for carrying out this plan. He was sure the Legislature never intended the Board should possess the power of rating the people in the whole district for the drainage of the city. [Applause.] He was nearly prepared to say that a system or drainage which would have answered the requirements of the outlying parts of the district could have been carried out altogether for a rate of 2d in the £, instead of a first, rate of sd, which had lately been struck by the Board. He felt certain the Board would go to the full extent of their borrowing powers, and that the rate eventually would be Is in the £. The whole of the outlying portions of the district should take immediate and energetic action to prevent this scheme being commenced until the meeting of Parliament, and in the meantime move their members to have the Act amended, so thai, a special rate might, be levied in that portion where the greatest amount of money was being spent. [Applause.] Of course the outlying districts required drainage, and the Road Boards would best know to what extent this drainage was required. Mr Williams then referred to the expressions of some members of the Board, who had said that the meetings held in various places had been packed. The Board had lately issued a manifesto saying that if halt: their constituents requisitioned them to that effect they would resign. Well, the various meetings of ratepayers had been well-attended and pretty unanimous in their opinions of the action of the Board regarding their scheme, and to ask that petitions containing half the names of the ratepayers in the district should be presented to them within a month was simply playing the fool, as if even an army of canvassers were employed in the work the thing could not be done, as working men especially could not always be found at their homes. He was glad to hear that at a meeting of the Board held the previous day they had determined to modify their scheme. Though the present meeting was not large in numbers, yet those present represented the greater portion of the property in the district, and he trusted that as the proposed system of drainage was not required in their district they would consistently and unitedly oppose it. [Applause.] He did not think the Board should resign because the people objected to Mr Carruthers's scheme. They were clested for a very different purpose, and should rather resolve tore-cousidcr the whole question. Mr Wright had said tlio Board had seen far ahead of the people, and had determined on a scheme which would answer the requirements of 100,000 people; but for this scheme they must remember the present ratepayers would have to pay, according to Mr Bell's estimate, a sum of £160,000. There were one or two members of the Board (lie wouldn't mention names, as that seemed to be objectionable), who imagined that no one but themselves could read— [laughter]—or, if so, had no books on drainage to read,and Dr. Dumbull had been advised by one of them to enlarge his library. Now, hi the libraries of Christchurch there were many excellent works on drainage, and he had read some of these, and was convinced that, considering the relative value of labor and material between here and London, the proposed system, if carried out, would cost nearer £500,000 than £160,000.

Tn Mr Carruthers's scheme the flushing of the pipes by rain water was greatly depended upon, and he (Mr Williams) remembered when they had no rain to speak of from September to February, and what would be the state of the health of Christehnrch at such a time with noxious gases being forced from those loaded pipes. [Applause.] After referring to the pumping stations and asking how the sewage was to be disposed of after it had been pumped up by means of the stations, Mr Williams said to his mind the whole scheme was imperfect. The Board had said they would postpone the works to give the ratepayers an opportunity of considering the plans, but instead of doing so they authorised one of their members to negotiate for the sites on which to erect pumping stations, and certainly such an action was not keeping faith with the ratepayers. He would not detain them longer, but would advise them to write to their representative, Mr Rolleston —whose views on this question he did not know, but he knew that Mr Evans Brown intended taking some action in the matter —and not let this drop, but ask that gentleman to move that the Act should be amended so that they would only be rated for the particular kind of drainage their district required. [Applause.] He was prepared to answer any questions, and as a ratepayer of the district begged to move the resolution he had read. [Loud applause.] In reply to Mr Goodland, Mr Wynn Williams said he understood the 5d in the £ now levied would go towards payment of the interest and sinking fund on the £IB,OOO paid for the purchase of the outfall drain ; the balance he supposed would bo spent for general purposes. So far as he was aware lie did not think there was the slightest probability of the Avon district being paid for their drains made before the formation of the Drainage Board. Mr Munroc had very great pleasure in seconding the resolution, and thought the rztepayers were much indebted to Mr Wynn Williams for his speech that evening and the trouble ho had taken on the question of drainage. Mr Hancock supported the resolution, and said that some years ago when asked to represent Christchurch in the City Council he had stated at the time that he would oppose the system of drainage which the Council proposed to initiate. After referring to the amount of money wasted on the Waltham drain and the insufficiency in size of the ' outfall drain, which it was stated had cost £IB,OOO, but which he believed cost a great deal more, he said that at the time he had told Mr Hart and others the drain should have been large enough to drive a dray down. If it had been that size then it might have proved useful, but its present size would in a short time render it useless. His opinion was that if a carriage and four could be driven down that drain, and if it were kept constantly flushed by water from the Avon, there would be no harm done in draining into the estuary, provided they kept excreta out of it, and which could be removed by other means. If Mr Carruthers had on any occasion carried out any large scheme of drainage then the ratepayers ought to be told of it; but for the Drainage Board to adopt such an extensive system as the one proposed, involving such an enormous expense to the ratepayers, and because they objected to it called them fools, was rather too much to bear silently. He would support the resolution. No other speaker coming forward, the chairman put the resolution, which was carried unanimously. After a vote of thanks to the chairman, who promised that a copy of the resolution should be forwarded to the Drainage Board as desired, the meeting closed.