NASEBY WATER WORKS BILL

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 386, 4 August 1876, Page 3

NASEBY WATER WORKS BILL

(Legislative Council.—-' Hansard.') The Hon. Captain Eraser, in moving the second reading of this Bli, »aid .that the town of Isa'seby" was' about the highest town in New Zealand, and had an elevation of 1,600 feet above the level of the sea.. It was not one of those ephemeral towns of which there were so many on the goldfields, but its auriferous deposits were of a permanent kind, and were, in fact, so rich as to warrant the General Government in expending £60,000 in making a water race and a sludgechannel there. The inhabitants of the town had no water for domestic purposes, and though there was " water, water, everywhere," there was "not a drop to driuk"—-because the water was pc-asoupy. By this Bill the Borough Council hoped to be able to borrow £SOOO , wherewith to bring water town for domestic and sanitary purposes. Such a supply of waiter was very badly required. The present Bill was precisely sionlar to one which he had the honor of taking charge of in the Council two years ago—the Cromwell Waterworks Bill —and he might say that the introduction of water in that instance had been a great success, There was nothing objectionable about the Bill, and he hoped the Council would pass it. He moved the second reading of the Bill. The Hon. Dr. Pollen said that before the question was put he would call the attention of his honorable friend to what he would probably find to be a defect in the Bill. It was proposed to raise the money required under " The .Municipal Corporations Act, 1572." But it could i io t be made operative unHl it had become what was called an authorised undertaking under that Act—that was to say, an Act of the Provincial Council of Otago would have to be passed applying to that particular municipality of Naseby the. provisions of "The Municipal Corporations Act, 1872." His honorable friend would Imow whether that had been done or not. if it bad not been done, the Act could not come into operation, for the reason he had stated. Ac the same time, however, there was now before tho Assembly, in another place, a Municipal Corporations Act which proposed to jjivp uivjnicipuln.ies the very power that his honorable friend sought to obtain for

the Corporation oi Naseby. He was giving his honorable friend this information as an pssuran.ee that, in case the Bill failed to be operative from the cause he had mentioned, it would still be competent for the borough of Naseby to do ail it required to do, namely to obtain a supply of water, under fchene>v Municipal Corporations Act; It might he found easier to do it in that way than by means of the Bill of which his honorable friend bad charge. He had not spoken- for' the purpose of opposing the second reading of the Bill, but because he wished to point out the difficulties on the one side and the advantages on the other of not pushing on with the measure. The debate was adjourned till the 21st, when the Hon. Captain IVaser said he found that this Bill was perfectly in order. The Municipal Corporations Waterworks Act was brought into operation in and for the town of Naseby by " The Naseby Waterworks Bmpowering Ordinance, 187-1.". the 2nd clause of which said, —"The "Act of the G-eneral Assembly of New Zealand, shortly intituled ' The Municipal Corporations Waterworks Act, 1872,'. is hereby brought in operation in and for the town of Naseby, and shall take effeet on and from the first day of November, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four" This Bill was word for word and letter for letter the same as the Act which was pasuvd last year for the town of Clyde, except that the word "Naseby" was used instead of " Clyde." Bill read a second time, considered in Committee, reported without amendments, and read a third time.

ocm usual report of raining business is unavoidably held over .till to-niorrow.