PUKEKOHE'S WATER AND DRAINAGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 137, 26 January 1916, Page 2

PUKEKOHE'S WATER AND DRAINAGE.

Council Determines to Proceed. At the adjourned monthly meeting of the Pukekohe Borough Counci held last evening, all the members being present with the exception of Crs Bilkey and Motion, renewed consideration was given to the water and drainage schemes that were recently rejected by the ratepayers at the loan polls, and in the end the Council, in effect, decided to proceed with both proposals provided ways and meaiiß could be arrange! lor. THE DKAINAGE SUHEME The Mayor, Mr H (J K Majoi, reported that he had communicated by telephone with the Health Department as to the likelihood of the Council securing the necessary sanction of the Minister of Internal Affairs lor a loan for drainage to be raised without authorisation by the ratepayers and the information con--1 veyed to him was that having regard to the recent poll consent fir the money to be secured would probably not be given until the ratepayers had been consulted again. At fhs same time the Health Officer advised that a formal application should be made to him in tbe matter, and he would then give a denfiite decision one way or tbe other.

Cr Hubbard proposed that the Municipal Association should te asked through ita 1 gal adviser to furnish an opinion whether in the event of steps as proposed being taken it would still be possible to define a special drainage area, which he considered was an all important point

Cr Batter seconded, and the motion was agreed to The Mayor then asked that he should be authorised to ebcain at some small sum, say, two guinea*, particulars of work and cost under various healings, which had to be supplied in the information to be forwarded to tj>e Health Department on making application lor the necessary sanction. He explained that particulars as before could be obtained I'iom a young man, who had assisted Mr Lockie (Jannon in taking the levek Cr Barter proposed and the Mayor seconded, that application for sanction should be made to the Minister through the Health Department

Cr Koadley urged that before particulars were forwarded to the Ueilth Department the property in Hall street, as to the exclusion of which from the drainage rating area there had besn so much comment, should be included in the scheme

The Meyor remarked that any alteration would entail a fresh start, es tbe plan had been drawn in accordance with the amount of money that would te available Cr Koadley contended that there would be no cbance of carrying the scheme if the property in question wan not included, as it simply meant that the property would later on be drained at the expensj ot the ratepayers of the drainage area and not at tbe owner's expense Cr Patterson expressed tbe opinion that it would only be time wasted taking any further steps as the drainage scheme bad been twics "turned down,"—once at a pubiic meeting and recently at the pall Tin Mayor, referring to Cr Koadley a remarks, said that the scheme might possibly seem crude but its principle was that only places that would be drained should be ra'ed. Other properiies could be added later on another special area being formed Cr Barter asked whether the rumour was correct that the Public Schuol *as not included in the drainage area

Tbe Mayor replied that although the School was not actually included in the plan it cauld be connected very easily with the drain Cr Roadie? contended that there was a general concensus ot opinion thnt all properties that could be rated should be rated

The Mayor remarked that ratepayers seemed in ignorance of the fact that .they had the power wbea a special area was advertised to appeal to the Magistrate to include in the area any property that had been omitted and which they considered should be included, or on the otter hand to ask that any property that had been excluded should be included, and the Magistrate then determined the point. Thus ratepayers shouid take action in that way instead of sub qeuently raising pretests

The Town Clerk, Mr J F Deace, at ti)is stage, said thqt be hacj been accused by a member of the Council of having deliberately omitted trom the drainage rating area the Hall street block of land. He wished it to be understood that such was untrue. He had drawn up the area at the dictation of the Urainage Committee, of which Committee moreover his accuser was a member

Cr Koadley: I suppose you refer to me, but what you say is cot correct. What 1 referred to was another property, which vou to|d me you had omitted, and not thn Hall street property The Town Clerk: My information came from a man you spoke to, and who for the reason named voted against the loan Cr Koadley: Vou were misinformed. Again l Bay it is untrue The Mayor intervened, and said the Council of course accepted Cr Koadley s denial The motion for application to be made to the Health Department was then agreed to, and the Mayor was empowered to get the information that was required to accompany the application provided that the reply from the Municipal Association was to the effect that a special drainage area could be defined In reply to Cr Koadley, the Mayor stated that the special area would again be advertised and then objections as to exclusion or inclusion of properties could ba dealt with in the way he had previously explained THE WATEK SULTLY I'lie Council then passed on to the consideration of the rejected wa*u<r loan v i The Mayor asked lor tlir cil's views as to whether further nteps should lie 1 ."ken in regard to the water supply. It would be possible, lie said, to build a new reservoir out of tfie general ra'e, although perhaps of a smaller si?e

an had been propoed, and he » certain it would bring alout a ving. There were pknty of eana, he added, of raising money. it instance, they coul'l put oil an tra balf-epenny rate, which would ve them £7' JO, they could collect e Btreet lighting ra'e, equivalent iSO, and aIBO the Hospital rat?, divalent to both of which ere row paid rat 9 , id they could special ater rate over yn Board eS which '.hay a*; 50 to drop hen they recently determined on ie revised scale ot charges 'o cormers. Ihe last-tiamd would be 100, or a total altogether of 1400. He did not mean that such lould be done, and he only meotionI tha same as forms ?f possibilities, gain, it was not necessary that ie money should be raised in one par. He personally was absolutely itistied as to tte general necessity ad th 3 form of the scheme as put > ths ratepayer?, but since the aterworks had been responsible >r squabbles of rld-time standing e advised that before further bepa were taken they should get a jport from some reliable and ecogniEei consulting engineer and ut an end onoe and for all to the bjections and obstructions that had een raised f'r Roadlay propos£d that the waterworks proposal should be reerred to the Finance Committee for uch Committee to report ai to ways nd means thereon. His idea was hat the Finance Committee should o thoroughly into finances generlly. He was a member of the Comnittee, but so far their business lad only te:n to pass accounts, but t was his duty to the ratepayers o thoroughly understand the inancea ot the borough. Cr Beatty seconded Cr Barter reminded Councillors ;hat the existing pressure valve Has tha main difficutly to ovetcome ind even a small additional rfservoir sould be the means of dispensing with the pressure valve Cr Hubbard supported the motion, laying that as they were nearing the «nd of their financial Tear it would be advantageous it the Finance Committee reported as to what ironey could ba mide available tor different purposes next year The resolution wa3 agreed to. and it was futther resolved that the Waterworks Committee should submit to the Finance Committee an estimate setting forth what money would be required for an amended scheme The Mayor again referred to the matter ct engaging a consulting engineer. . Cr Patterson claimed that the Council had arrived at a decision as to what was required and that they should accordingly carry out their own ideas without regard to the opinions of tbe ratepayers, to whom they were not again appealing if they paid for the work out of rates. They had received their own engineer's report ar.d should act on it The Waterworks Engineer, Mr Wyatt: I beg your patdon. I have never given any report Cr Patterson weit on to say that if Mr Wyatt had rot actually submitted a report he had supplied tbe information for the same Cr Roadley thought that although the Council recognised that their Engineer could carry out the scheme thay had to cinvince other people, and therefore he favoured an engineer being appointed to consult with their engineer The Mayor supported Cr Koadley's arguments and considered that Mr Wyatt should receive the same tee tor a report as would be payable to a consulting engineer. Ha proposed tint the Waterworks Committee should be authoris.d to employ soma such well-known consulting engineer as they might think fit to cooler with Mr Wyatt and to submit a joint report, equal payment to be made to both Cr Hubbard seconded Cr Patterson opposed, claiming that they would simply get tte opinion of thuir own engineer through tha mouthpiece of an Auckland engineer. He moved as an amendment that Mr Wyatt be asked to submit a report and that he be paid for it. Cr Roadley seconded pro forma to enable tbe amendment to be discuss d, but ha considered that its weakness was tint it thsy adopted Mr Wyatt s report and allowed him to carry it out the Council would be held responsible it any defect developed in tha work Cr Patterson remarked that even with an outude engineer the Council had to take tbe responsibility The amendment was then put and carried on the voic:s Later on in the meeting the Mayor reported that the New Zealand Dairy Association were con■jkmriating sinking a bore at their HLeKone factory if they could not with water by th'. Council"; ancfui such a case the town would be a considerable loser as the As.-OL'iatiun would naturally be big consumers, and in addition by extending the mains to the factory other properties would be brought into the water rating area it was decided that Mr Wyatt should mtewiew the factory manager and should inform him that tbe Council hoped to be able to arrange to supply water to the factory, tbe Finance Committee being delegated to, it possible, provide means for extension of the mairs