The Sun TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1928. RAIN AND RESERVOIRS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 296, 6 March 1928, Page 8

The Sun TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1928. RAIN AND RESERVOIRS

IT is a poor council that never rejoices. For the first time in many months the Auckland City Council is happy while its Water Committee is almost hilarious. The long drought has broken at last.

So far, plumping rain has not affected the reservoirs in the Waitakere watershed to any appreciable extent, but it has dispelled the fears of municipal administrators and dissolved some of the widespread disgust with the chronic necessity every summer for restrictions on the use of water.

It will require a deluge, however, to soften the hard public criticism of the council for its shortsighted policy, its village outlook on the needs of a city. Such gratitude as there may be in the community for the improved conditions and prospects is due to the heavens, not to the civic administrators. Like Isaac of old they have to dig again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father. In other words, they still have to rely on old sources of supply, and share with the inhabitants of the Zoological Park the waters from the Western Springs, which fountain-head is by no means as crystal clear as “cool Siloam’s shady rill.”

Still, it is right to note with true appreciation, however, that, although the enterprise is touched with Gilbertian humour, the council has actually done something in the form of measurable achievement. It has added “a cubit to the stature” of the Waitakere dam. There, the impounding wall has been raised sixteen feet, giving a total storage capacity of 450,000,000 gallons of water, a substantial increase of 230,000,000 gallons. It may be amusing to satirical citizens to note that the work was completed after, instead of before, the drought, hut derisive laughter should not he permitted to smother the fact that the dam has been raised. That is something to the credit of the council, whose complaint these days is that its good name in the money market is being injured by lack of praise for good works and excellent management.

Moreover, the general administration, at long last, has been persuaded to accelerate the construction of the dam in the Huia Valley. It has been decided to employ additional men and work double shifts on the hitherto leisurely job. This should have been adopted months ago, and it is difficult to understand why the council hestitated so long about accepting the advice of its Water Committee to do it without any delay at all. When all is said and done, these achievements and emergency works are but as straws showing how slowly the water runs to all the storage dams. There is need of greater work, so as to make an end to an “auld sang” about inadequate supplies. Ever since 1916 when the citizens of Auckland were assured by loud assertions and impressive estimates that an abundant supply of water was certain until 1966, by which time Auckland’s population would be at least 490,000 and its water consumption not less than 24-J million gallons a day, the necessity for exasperating restrictions has been a recurrent feature of summer-time supply. In a district which has a rainfall from five to six feet a year, this record is a grotesque story of inefficient civic administration. Local suburban bodies plainly express a lack of confidence in the City Council as a present or prospective purveyor of stored water. Unless the council mends its ways and ends the delays in adequate municipal service, it will have to be driven into oblivion.