The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1876.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 34, 31 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1876.

The mistake tlt.it our Municipal Council has matte iti supplying the town with gas before water must have forced itself by this time upon the minds of all rightthinking citizens in Oatnara. While it is fully admitted on all hands that gas is a

very great convenience to any town, one cannot overlook the fact that a good supply of pure water is a much more essential element to have in our midst. The latter we look upon as an absolute necessity, while the former may be classed as a luxury. It is all very well to warn the public clay after day against the spread of fever and other contagious diseases, and to point out the dire necessity for extreme cleanliness, but how, we ask, are these suggestions to be carried out unless Ave have the means wherewith to do it. " Slush out your drains, and thoroughly scour out your sewers " is no doubt very excellent advice to give where there is a plentiful supply of water, but when this excellent receipt is attended with an expenditure of two shillings a cask for water, we take leave to think that there are very few persons who will care to act on the hints thrown out. It is now two months I since we have had any rain, and as a con- ! sequence the majority of our citizens are j obliged to have water brought to their houses at the price we have just named. Under these e'reumstaiices, it is, therefore, impossible to purify back premises and prevent the spread of disease. Independent of a good supply of the sparkling element for sanitary purposes, it is an acknowledged fact that the water we are now drinking from the creek has a most injurious effect upon the constitution, and there can be little doubt that it is the chinking of this creekwater which has caused a lot of the sickness in town. Looking at the supply of gas before water, we think we are correct when we state that the majority of our citizens would much have preferred to continue on with the now obsolete kerosene, rather than than be temporarily deprived of a good water supply, through the introduction of gas. With one or two exceptions, we fail to see there is such a vast difference between the illumination of the shops now, than when kerosene was used. It is not our intention for one moment to deprecate the lighting of Oainaru with gas, but we hold that it should not have been done till a good water supply had been first introduced. Money was borrowed for both purposes, and certainly the liquid element should have had the preference over the gaseous one. Fortunately for Oamaru the leading shops are built of of stone, and not of wood, so that as a fire-preventive water is not an absolute necessity, but on sanitary grounds we argue that the Council has made a groat mistake in spending a ; large sum of money on a gas supply when ! pure water was more urgently required. It is no use now, to use an old truism, to ciy over spilt milk, and, therefore, the best plan to pursue is to urge upon oiir City Fathers immediate action for the carrying out of our water scheme. Some time has elapsed since the engineer appointed by the Council entered upon his duties, and up to the present we have heard nothing of his report on the subject. Like all [large schemes undertaken by corporate bodies, we suppose a large amount of foolscap paper will have to be wasted before the matter assumes a really practical phase ; but we can assure Mr. M'Leoi> that the public are looking anxiously forward for his report, and they will indeed be pleased to hear that he has decided upon some definite scheme to supply the town with plenty of pure water. We don't require any more talking on the subject, nor any more writing, for we have had a surfeit of both, so that if the thing is to be done, then "Twere well it were clone quickly," and no more time spent in talking about it.