PROVINCIAL LETTERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 285, 18 November 1862, Page 5

PROVINCIAL LETTERS.

■No. I.

WATER FOR DUNEDIN

(To the Editor of the Daily Times.) St,—lf the next mail from Canterbury should bring us news that the money was granted, the contract taken, and the first sod turned to supply Christclmrch with water, at a higher level, from the hills of Bank's Peninsula or elsewhere; I suppose our Dunedin public would not venture to be surprised, and would be r.oo hardened by usage to be ashamed, that Canterbury still continues to be the pioneer of civilization in New Zealand.

It may be long before the people of Christchurch require any improvement in the water supply they enjoy at present, or become luxurious enough to think it a necessity to have water laid on in the highest stairs of their houses. But, assuiedly if they require such a thing now as urgently as Dunedin do»s, we shall hear about it first through some well devised and pluckily executed undertaking, to add to the list of the public wo«ks by which they have already put us to shame.

To enforce the wisdom of giving to our town a plentiful and accessible supply of fresh and pure water, we have no need to borrow arguments from anything but the present circumstances of the place. If it were otherwise, it would be rather a pleasure to heap up records in judgment against ourselves, of what other towns and cities in modern and ancient days have done for themselves to secure this benefit. The splendid woiksof former generations may impress us with the irr.porUmce attached to water supplies by Emperors and commonwealths, who, we flatter ourselves, were far behind us in true civilization. We have no need here for gigantic and costly structures such as conveyed to .Ancient Home the stream of life and health. Liverpool or Glasgow may need t i imprison the waters of hills thirty miles away, and convey them at vast expense to become " a river ,to make glad " their cities. Not so with us, In our own town, in the bosom of those hills which give our Town Board so much trouble to reduce to the " permanent; level," we have our supplies already treasured. In the gullies which vie with these hills in impracticability and inaccessibility, we lm\e the needful reservoirs almost marie, to hand, A splendid water supply capable of being made accessible to all, capable' too, of extinguishing without the laborious aid oi engines, any fire that may occur in- this.-dan-gerously built city, may be prepared at less expense than any city ever incurred for the purple.

But do we need it ? We are spending money particularly fast just now. The-Town Board is down upon us like a hammer for the pavement at 25s per square yard, The same body is running the city into debt, and we hearthat the Government is about to run into wholesale debt, all for public improvements which some one or other has demonstrated to be abjolute necessities. Is this need so urgent ? Have we not innumerable wells and tanks and a score or two of running streams to say nothing of the Town Board pumps ? Do we need it. Sir ? why half the population of .Uunedin nave no supply of w^ter at all, except such as they carry for themselves from such a distance as would break your back, or mine, who are unaccustomed to such pursuit of water under difficulties ; and the scanty quantity is but too well paired by the unwholesome qutility in far too many instances. I wish all the men and women who have had to use impure water for drinking or cooking during the past three months, would leave their names and addresses with the clerk of the I own Board. That body would thus collect one of the most important pieces of statistics that they-have had to deal with during their term of office.

Those who had comfortable residences before the rapid increase in ihe town took place, and the new comers who have been fortunate enough to procure such ior themselves, have very little idea of the real hardships through the want of water, which, hundreds of their neighboi s have lately been subjected to.liyou are prepared topublish a mapof the town for the pui pose, I shall be happy to shade it, like the missionary maps of the world we sometimes see;

dark shades or he hea honism of no water 8 'IP 7, a few-bright white ;p :ts for tl c in lividual tics and veils that sujpl/the houst-s of our \ e!l to do cit'zens ; but, alas I no expanse of whne Jinvwheie, there is no district of the town, no area of a hundred yards diameter, respectably s .pjiiii-d «ith wafc jr at all.

An! what are the supplies, in which the most f "-tit are <>f us rejoicel? Wells that sometimes run dry, tanks thiit'pet foul, or at best springs au.u streams that lie down in a hollow or across the street, and from which the water must be fetched. \V hether these are adequate to give to tl c household a -sufficient and perfectly wholesome supply always at hand, k-t our wives or houscket pi-is re?>ly. What use they would be if our houses were on fire, let us ask of The agents of the nsunince companies, or of Cupt. Rces ami the iire brigade.

And this morning I saw letters in your paper about Asintic cholera. One of them mildly peads, "We hope the public will not become altirraed." I hope, Sir, that the public will become very much alarmed. A panic might be very salutary, if it caused Dunedin to lie drained, and cleansed and permeated with good wholesome water. Those of us whose nerves are not of the sort to brim? us under the influence of such a. panic, may advisedly conceal ourindiffrrence.aad fan, by our sympathy, all the struggling fire of alarm which we find in onr neighbors. That the two great things neede f, as remedies for a state of things which cannot exist much longer without bringing a calamity upon us, are a thoroughly efficient system of drainage, and a good water supply, has been urged upon the public by yourself and others for" some tima j.ast. The first of these objects is necessaiily to be ol>tiuncd only by the action of the Town Board. It is a question beside my present purpose, but I cannot refrain from reminding your readers that the whole management of it li<-s with themselves. We have had the pleasure of abusing the Town Board for its shorteom.ngs and our own for nearly a twelvemonth. That body is shortly to ha remodelled by the animal election. If our citizens are as careless about the forthcoming election as about former ones, they will have but themselves to blame, if the constitution of the Town Board is (as may \ cry easily be the case) deteriorated, instead of improved by tiie new blood to be put into it. The second object will be best attaine i by a private company. It is by such moans that most British towns are supplied. The Government and the Town Board have enough on their hands and a water company is not one that should need' a Government subsidy or guarantee. If reasonably well managed it wiil pay—perhaps be a highly remunerative investment for its .shareholders. We have an example already set us, in tiie spirited manner in which the gentlemen chiefly interested in tiie Gas Company have pushed on their enterprise. But if we reflect at -.11 we need no examples, no incentives from outside the question. Water we want, and must have. For every man, woman, and child in this place, two gallons of pure water should be prepared and ready to ha; d every day, for drinking, for cooking,' for washing, ior bathing, for cleansing of clotlus, and household utensils, and linen. Every houso iioldur would snvc money by taking shar-'s in the undertaking, even if the capital were sunk lor ever, and the whole resulting supply sent ionh gratis to every one. Can we not evuke a Water Company from the deeps of Dunedin dirt and discomfort " nous verrons." I am. Sir, Yours respectfully, K. B.