The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRTDAY, MAY 12, 1911. A WATER-SUPPLY PROBLEM.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 12 May 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRTDAY, MAY 12, 1911. A WATER-SUPPLY PROBLEM.

A KfitST-CLASS water-supply is within sight- oF tho J3oys' Training Farm. AVeraroa, and it' the Government does its rluty tiic present obsolete method of supplying water to the institution will be abandoned. Reports have been made by the Public Works Department of the Government that the water-supply at present obtained - by this institution from the County water races is both sanitary and sufficient: hut t° P"t the converse case euphemistically, we may say that there are degrees of sufficiency. to .say nothing of a reasonable amount of fastidiousness. And wbat of the Government's duty of j adopting all available safeguards I against the risk ol lire in any in- | stitution wherein human lives may Ibe imperilled? The case of the j Hoys' Training Farm, in regard to water, is one needing speedy amendment, and we believe that if the. Government were to open up negotiations with the Levin Borough Council'there would be a mutually satisfactory agreement arrived at very soon. So far as the present situation has become apparent, if. appeal's that the Government l£ducation Departiue.ii.t- considers that the terms offered by the Borough Council are unduly high. In t<he h::;i? of helping the negotiations on a little, we questioned the. Mayor of Levin on the subject, and he replied that the Council considered the offer made by it to the Government, in respect of the Boys' Training Farm, was most reasonable. Nevertheless, there was nothing bard and fast about the terms ■pioted: the letter conveying them was in the form 'of a "general offer" uhi li was intended to he a means of opening up negotiations; a tentative proposal, in fact. It remains r..0.v for the Government to submit alternative proposals, if it is disinclined to accept the tonus offered by the Council. Xone the le.ss, the Iv.irough Council's offer cannot be regarded as an exacting one. Conditional upon tho Government paying to the Council a sum of £f>o per annum and sixpence per thousand gallons for water, the Council offered to supply the Boys' Training Farm (for a term of fifteen years) with water up to two million gallons per annum. The Council also offered to put down the necessary extra mains for the sum of £1600. These proposals certainly do not seem unfair. At all events, the Government should strive to come to some arrangement which will better the undesirable water-supply which has had to suffice the boys - a.iul adults now quartered in the institution.