WATER SUPPLY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4586, 13 July 1923, Page 1

WATER SUPPLY.

POWEBS OF COUNTY COUNCILS. SOLICITOR’S OPINION. The Hauraki Plains County Council’s solicitor prepared and presented the following report at Tuesday’s meeting pf the Council at Ngatea:— “In accordance with your request I have to advise on the ‘ question of water supply as follows: “The powers of the Council on this .subject are contained in the Water Supply Act, 1908. Section 6 ! of the Act, provides that the Council may by special order from time to time declare the whole county or any part of the county to be a district for the purpose of the. construction of water races therein; and by the same or any subsequent special order may fix the boundaries of any such district, and may assign a name thereto ; and by any subsequent special order may enlarge, alter, or curtail the limits of any district, subject to the conditions ip the said section mentioned. “A town district shall not be included unless by a separate petition signed by not less than one-half of the ratepayers within such town district. “Before the special order can be passed a plan of the area must be deposited and pbjections called for. “Section 12 empowers the Council to construct, extend, and. maintain water races and ,to take lands therefor. “Section 13 describes the procedure tp be gone through before the work is undertaken. “Section 32 empowers the Council to raise special loans, which in the aggregate must not exceed one-half of the capital value of the land in the district. “Section 35 provides that for rating purposes the land in the area must be classified according to benefits to be received from the undertaking. “Section 38 empowers the Council to make a by-law as to rates and charges for the supply of the water. “You will notice that the Act speaks of a ‘water race,.’ which phrase at firjst sight may not appear to cover the proposed scheme for the Hauraki

Plains County, but the expression was considered by Mr Justice Chapman in the case of Smith v. the Kairanga County, 1917, G.L.R. 322, where the facts were as follows :—

“The plaintiff and others laid before the defendant council a scheme for the constituting of a water race district and the construction of works whereby water was to be taken from a river and led partly through the lands of the plaintiff and others and partly along county roads,, and thence distributed to the farms and houses, and it was substantially a scheme by which the water was to be carried in iron pipes practically over the whole distance, and thence to be liberated in depressions leading through the farms or conducted by means of service pipes to houses. It was held that the scheme was within the provisions of the Water Supply Act,, 1908. “After setting forth the facts His Honour said: ‘I can see no reason why such a scheme should not bo within the powers of a county council, or why a purely artificial construction, such as a tunnel, an aqueduct carried on arches, an ordinary flume, or a pipe, should not be just as much a race as what is ordinarily called a water race.’”