PUBLIC OPINION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 179, 17 March 1914, Page 2

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Drainage Problem

A COLUMN FOR THE PEOPLE

| TO THE EDITOR.] Sir,—l noticed in your issje of the 13th inst. that the Borough Council was waited on by a deputation of Pukekobe business men whose object was to persuade the Council to rate the whole oi the borough in connection with the drainage scheme, instead of, as previously decided, to rate only that portion which would benefit by the drainage. Their request appears to me to be not only unreasonable but selfish. The members of the deputation expressed themselves strongly in favour of drainage, but they want to shift the responsibility of paying for it on to someone else, which conduct (were it not so unjust) would be rather amusing. Their one frail reason is that should an epidemic occur through lack of drainage the residents outside the rating area would probably be affected by it and that they should pay a rate to protect themselves against a disease which would have its origin in the inside area. They admit that an epidemic would most likely have its origin in the most thickly populated portion of the town (the only part where drainage is necessary), but they want those who wuuld not benefit bv it to assist in putting this portion in a sanitary condition, as they say an epidemic wuuld not confine itself to the place were it commenced, namely, these people's backyards. Judgirg by this argument if a nuisance existed on my farm and the Borough Council asked me to abate it, I would request their assistance, explaining to them that they would ba as likely to suffer from its ill effects, and there-

fore they should pay to save themselves. If the people in the drainage area object to pay for their own draining, then why extend the cost to the limits of the borough only? But perhaps theae gentlemen propose confining the supposed epidemic to that area. The people of surrounding districts would probably be affected by any contagious disease which started in the borough, so surely this is a reason in favour of these residents paying for their own drainage. 1 hope the farmers who are unfortunate enough to be included in the borough will wake up and not allow this additional and unjust rate to be added to their already almost unbearable load of taxation. Mr Perkins, a member of the deputation, was kind enough to remark, when discussing the potato grading questnr, "that some farmers and Maoris would do anything." I think the farmers might now return the compliment l>v stating that some Pukckohe storekeepers* would do anything, even to foisting their rates for benefits which they alone receive on to other people. —I am, etc., OVEK-TAXED FAKMEK.