PUPUKE WATER SUPPLY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 156, 22 September 1927, Page 9

PUPUKE WATER SUPPLY

PROPERTY-OWNERS’ CLAIMS WHO SHOULD PAY? (THE SI X'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON. Wednesday. TP compensation is to be paid to those owners of property on the shores of Lake Pupuke who have suffered hardships through the restrictions of the Health Department, the local bodies concerned will be called upon to shoulder the responsibility. for the restrictions upon building permits in this area were imposed! in the interests of these bodies.

In explaining the position in the House the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, said the restrictions on building on the land draining into Lake Pupuke were imposed by the Takapuna Borough Council, which is the local authority in whose district the lake is situated. The restrictions were imposed on the advice of the Medical Officer of Health for the district.

This action was taken with a view to conserving the purity and wholesomeness of the water drawn from the lake and in the interests of the residents not only of Takapuna Borough but also of the three other boroughs which receive their water-supply from the same source. Claim had been made by Mr. A. Harris, member for Waitemata, that properties, while bearing heavy rates, were made more or less valueless by the refusal of building permits.

Mr. Harris said if the State was not prepared to pay the compensation, legislation could be introduced to enable the four marine boroughs — Takapuna, Devonport, Birkenhead, and Northcote —to bear the compensation. The Minister said that the burden of Mr. Harris’s complaint appeared to be that the Takapuna Borough Council would be obliged to shoulder the responsibility of compensation if the owners could establish a claim, but it was clear that the restrictions had been imposed for the purpose of conserving the purity of the water supplied to four boroughs. It appeared to him, as far as the issue raised by Mr. Harris was concerned, that if compensation were to be provided, it should be provided by those who consumed the water, and not only by the Takapuna Borough Council. The question of legislation was another affair altogether, and before he would feel disposed to consider seriously asking the Government to introduce legislation, the request should come through the official channels of the local bodies concerned.