THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1879, 2 March 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1880.

The proceedings in the City Council last evening with regard to the Waimakariri Water Supply Scheme must have taken a large majority of the ratepayers by surprise. Not hut what we believe that the committee have taken the course which would have inevitably been necessary had the ratepayers been consulted. But stillit is only one short week since Or. Cherrill projected the crusade of the Water Supply Committee who were to go forth to convince unbelieving and ignorant ratepayers as to the merits of the scheme now so ruthlessly abandoned. However, it is not perhaps so very astonishing if the matter comes to be considered calmly and critically. The committee, had they reflected on the subject, must—as the majority of ratepayers have done long ago—have come to the conclusion that the scheme proposed was far too elaborate and far too costly to be carried into effect under present circumstances. They must have known that to appeal to the ratepayers to sanction the loan for this purpose, and add yet another rate to the almost unbearable burden, would be fruitless. Yet in the face of this, and despite earnest appeals to consider or enquire if a cheaper, and, though less magnificent, still efficient water supply scheme could be obtained, they persisted in the expenditure of money which, on the face of it, was unnecessary. Over £IOOO of the ratepayers’ money has thus been wasted, and this at a time when urgently necossai j works are obliged to stand over on account of the shortness of funds of the Corporation. So soon as the estimate of the cost of the work was ascertained, the committee were in a position to judge whether there was the smallest chance of the scheme being adopted. We contend that there was not, and that the plain duty of the committee was to have come to the Council and reported this, so that the waste of time and money which has taken place might have been avoided. Great stress is laid by the members of the present Council on the fact that this scheme was a legacy from the late Council, and that they were, therefore, bound to go on with it and it only. Of the truth of the first part of this proposition there is no doubt. It was a legacy of the Council, hut it did not at all follow that the present Council were hound to go blindly on with it when they must have felt assured that any time and money spent on it would be thrown away. They could have appealed to the ratepayers and pointed out the inutility of persisting in the scheme, and they would then have absolved themselves from any blame. But no such course was followed, and wo now find ourselves in the position of having spent £IOOO and much valuable time and having to begin cfe novo to work out a scheme. The committee have, to our mind, mistaken the whole position, and up to the last moment appear to have had implicit faith in their scheme. But some startling revolution in machinery which has only just burst upon the astonished world has suddenly converted them, and they are as ready to throw themselves into the arms of the promulgator of the new scheme as they were to go forth to sing the praises of the Waimakariri one. The ratepayers, and, to all appearance, the committee are profoundly ignorant of the merits of the new scheme, or oven of its details. Yet the latter wore willing to abandon their pet project and temporarily withdrew it to consider another. The mistake has been, as pointed out in former articles on this subject, in the committee resolutely declining to enquire whether a cheaper but still efficient scheme than the one proposed was available. So soon, it will be observed, as this question is asked, casually by a ratepayer at a sort of conversational meeting, the information is given by an expert that be believes such a scheme is practicable. Had the question been aslicl by the committee when the cost of the

work proposed to be done was ascertained the money and time would Lave been saved. Now further delay and further expenditure will be necessary. “We suppose the committee will obtain a report upon this mysterious scheme from Mr. Blackwell, which will cost money. Experiments will doubtless have to be made, which will cost more money still, and then perhaps we shall find that it is not suited to our requirements. That a water supply is urgently needed is evident to every one, and no doubt if we are content with something moderate, and yet one which will answer our purpose for some years to come we shall be able to find it. But we confess to some degree of doubt as to whether the course now proposed to bo pursued by the committee is at all likely to accomplish this end. Certainly the way in which the subject has been handled by both the late and present committee is not at all calculated to inspire confidence as to future results.