THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1913. BOROUGH SERVICES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 152, 9 December 1913, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1913.

BOROUGH SERVICES.

" We nothing extenuate, nor set down auaht in malice."

Drainage and Lighting. We are glad to notice that tho Borough Council is not losing sight of the fact that if the town of Pukekohe is to be progressive it must be provided with modern conveniences. When a town is in the making it is the general experience that a lot of opposition is presented to the raising of loans by the municipality. Usually the chief objectors are the old residents who fear the imposition of rates. It has to be admitted that if we borrow money we must pay for it, but the general policy of borrowing money for public utilities is not so fearsome as it may appear at first blush; indeed, if the scheme be sound, borrowing is invariably good business for a town. For instance : if we had waited for a water scheme until the cost could have been paid out of rates we would have never had a municipal water service. It could be got only by borrowing. At the present time there are 150 house and shop connections with the supply. Allowing that under the tank catchment svstem those consumers would have spent on an average, £5 each for tanks and stands that would have represented an expenditure of £650, with an absolute dependence upon the rainfall for summer supply, with no pressure behind the taps to enable an outbreak of fire to be coped with, and with no possibility of providing for the sewerage of the borough. In connection with drainage, from a health point of view it is infinitely preferable to carry the waste away and render it innocuous by proper septic treatment than it is to have it saturating the soil in disease-spreading condition b) means of hundreds of cess-pits and so-called septic tanks. There are at present in the area proposed to be drained, say 1 *'o houses. If suitable drainage conveniences were put in at each of those places at a cost to the individual of £SO, it would mean a total expenditure of£/000 —and still each place would have its inevitable day of future reckoning 1 The engineer's estimate for a scheme to meet the needs of the next quarter of a century is £BSOO. Precisely the same condition applies to lightin<>\ If 200 separate services were installel at a cost of £SO each, this would moan an aggregate expenditure of £IO,OOO, and would necessitate daily attention from 200 persons in the purchasing of fuel, the care of the apparatus, and so on. So that the individuals would probably be payingmorein interest, etc., than they would, under a public scheme, be paying in charges. But municipal lighting stands in a somewhat more advantageous position than does the water service or the sanitary drainage, because it can be placed upon a strictly commercial footing, the consumers carrying all the cost. It is true that tho whole borough would be required to back the loan, but judging from the experience of hundreds of towns in New Zealand such backing would involve no cash responsibility. We hope that the Mayor, who has revived this lighting matter, will' formulate a definite lighting proposition, put it I loldl.y before the people and stand or fall by the result. For ourselves, wo hold that it i* not for the Council to wait until the people say what they want; the Council should be the leaders and not tho followers I of their constituents. When tho time comes for decision tho matter then rests with the ratepayers to accept or reject. Our conviction is that Pukekohe should be lighted by municipal enterprise, and iu view of

all the cii'cumstancas we favour coal gas. The town needs the coke for its waterworks machinery ; it needs the tar for the footpaths. People who now have acetylene and other gases installed for lighting would still he prospective customers fur coal gas for cookiug, for heating and for power purposes, so that although it might not displace the house light it could do business. Electricity would not have that advantage. Private euterprhs is knocking at the door asking forpermissiontolightthe town. If it's a good thing for private enterprise it ought to he a good thing for the borough. When there is so much pipe-laying to be done it can best be done in concoction with the borough's road-making and footpath-making policy. An informal poll might be taken by the Council in order to ascertain which form of light the people would prefer —acetylene, electricity, coal-gas, Mercury or Dreadnought. Upon the information so obtained the Council could submit u loan proposal to the people for installing the light; if the loan were accepted, well and good. If it were rejected then private enterprise should be given its chance. But one way or the other the town should be provided with a public lighting service.