MANUKAU PROBLEMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 130, 23 August 1927, Page 8

MANUKAU PROBLEMS

PROPERTY-OWNERS at Karaka Bay, and other citizens, are expressing indignation at a proposal to discharge sewage effluent from New Lynn into the Manukau Harbour. The New Lynn Town Board, it is said, has already begun tunnelling operations with this end in view. The trouble is not likely to end at Karaka Bay. As time goes on the system will need to be pushed ahead to Shag Point, a distance, approximately, of two miles, and this, it is contended, will destroy three popular beaches. At the mention of the destruction of three beaches, Aucklanders as a whole will begin to take an interest in proceedings at Ivaraka Bay. Beaches are the greatest assets of the city and, although Auckland is so well endowed with pleasure resorts, it is but right that, looking to the future, we should take every step to safeguard the shores of our bays and our beaches. According to expert opinion it is not the effluent that will cause trouble, but the disposal of the sludge, which is liable to produce objectionable conditions on the waterfront. At a meeting of protest held yesterday, at which reference was made to “keeping one’s own backyard clean by throwing refuse into a neighbour’s yard,’’ remedial schemes were suggested, one being the proposal to pump New Lynn sewage into the Avondale system until some more comprehensive scheme is devised, and another that a drainage board be formed to include New Lynn, Glen Eden and Henderson. In the meantime the most reasonable course has been followed. A resolution has been forwarded to the Minister of Health requesting that he use his authority to delay further operations until the whole question has been fully investigated. It is better to defer execution of the project until the position lias been comprehensively reviewed than to push ahead with a scheme which may ultimately thrust upon the residents of Karaka Bay a task almost as difficult as that of the immortal Mrs. Partington who, broom in hand, tried to sweep the Atlantic from her front doorstep.