BOROUGH SANITATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 812, 15 February 1910, Page 2

BOROUGH SANITATION.

Thk Borough Treasurer reported at last night’s Council meeting that the sanitation account would show a debit of about £22 at the end of the financial year, which would have to be made up by a grant from the General Account. Cr Robinson by the way, objected to ratepayers outside the sani. tation area having to contribute towards the cost of a

service which they did not receive. The present sanitation charge is 15s per pan per annum, and next year this charge will, according to the Borough Treasurer, have to be increased in order to raise sufficient revenue to pay the cost of the service without calling on the funds of the General Account. Whether the Council have the power to make a charge for the removal of night soil, in excess of sixpence in the £ on the annual rental value of any property is open to question. In any case we do not suggest that any ratepayer would object to pay the charge levied. What we would ask ratepayers to do is to consider the cornparatiue cost of the proposed drainage proposals and the present antiquated arrangement. Even suppose the former costs a little more than they are at present paying—and in many cases it would be less —the benefits to be derived from an up-to-date system Irom a health point of view cannot be overestimated. Opponents of the scheme are making a great fuss of the cost of individual house connection stating that this would run into From information received, however, we believe that the cost of connections would not be more than ,£lO. Ratepayers should not consider the expenditure of a few pounds in a case like this, but the health of their families.