Withering Gardens

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 231, 19 December 1927, Page 8

Withering Gardens

AUCKLAND’S WATER RESTRICTIONS Demand Outpaces Supply THE present supply, works in hand, and prospective sources of supply, will provide a sufficiency of water for many years to come.” . ... This statement was set forth with due gravity in that modest periodical, ‘‘The Auckland Municipal Record, m October, 1924. To householders whose gardens are withering for lack of moisture it will just now appeal strongly.

by year the Auckland City Council lias convinced itself, with the completion of one work after another, that it has solved the watersupply problem for all time, yet once again its finds itself obliged to impose restrictions that are irksome to the community. Auckland's thirst is prodigious—--70 gallons a head of population has been the record of its recent daily consumption. Quaintly enough, the corporation holds this obvious virtue to the discredit of the citizens. London’s daily consumption is only Hr "4- rjr Hr -|- r'r -r t!- -y- ~r rr

half as much, say councillors, overlooking the fact that in this respect grimy old London may not be the model required by modern standards. Several of London’s millions, for instance, are compressed into quarters where a garden is a rarity. The ancient capital, enthroned in stateliness and dignity, is In this a contrast to brighter, fresher Auckland, a city of flowerbeds, lawns and garden plots. TOWN-PLANNING IDEALS Every suburban gardener is admitted by town-planning theorists to be demonstrating a civic pride that is quite as practical as any which Inspires a great architect, or the genius who carves the statuary mounted in the city square. But the suburban gardener’s civic pride can only be diminished, and his excellent work only arrested, by restrictions that allow him to hose his parching garden only twice a week. The restriction, of course, is aimed at the motorist, as well as J he gardener. It has been the habit of Auckland car-owners to hose their automobiles ou occasion, but this practice. too, must for the time be pursued only within the indulgence of the council. If the water famine became sufficiently acute the council would, doubt-

less, to be logical, forbid bathing or washing except on certain days- and in drastic circumstances would be justified in doing so. But it would then be more plain than ever that the city’s water supply was not yielding the service desired by the people, and querulous ratepayers might ask that official bragging cease until those responsible had created a system which would meet the reasonable demand of a populace living, after all. in a summer climate acknowledged to be subtropical. . Far from recognising the irritation that would follow any restrictions on the use of water, the City Council quite recently let pass an opportunity of hastening the day when provision against dry" periods will be adequate. This happy condition, it is expected, will come to pass at the end of next April, when the first instalment of the Huia proposition is finished, but the immediate outlook was already arid when Cr. J. A. C. Allum recently suggested that progress be accelerated by the institution of double shifts. Though its adoption would have relieved the unemployment situation, the plan was rejected on the score of extra expense involved in providing further accommodation at the camps. MILLENIUM IN SIGHT Other big reservoir projects will be begun in the Huia and Nihotupu \ alleys as the works now in progress are completed, and with their development, calculated to yield 28 million gallons daily by 1944, Auckland s thirsty people may sight a water millenium, an era in which water supply restrictions will be no more than an obnoxious memory. Fortunately the city is now innured to its hardships. Recurring summer water famines have been just as much a concomitant of its development as have been city councils that repeatedly deluded themselves into the conviction that existing systems were adequate. Originally the town drew its water from wells, one in Kitchener Street, one in Albert Street, and one nearly opposite the site of the Technical College. To these repaired Auckland’s householders when their tanks or water-butts were empty, and in those days Jack and Jill went their storied errand as a matter of course. Later came water-carriers, and hawkers who supplied the townspeople during the great drought of ’72. Such were the straits of the parched community that recognition of the need for a regular water supply forced itself upon the authorities, and the Western Springs property was purchased from Messrs. Low and Motion for £20,000. Reservoirs were erected at Ponsonby, Khyber Pass and Mount Eden, and from these the water was first fed to city consumers in 1877. In 1898 it was recorded that “the water supply has been subjected to a severe strain in recent years,” and in 1906 the first Waitakere dam was completed. Over no period of years, however, have the resources of the city been definitely ahead of current demand, and though the waterworks have now cost over £1,000,000 the council can .still find itself compelled to curtail the services.