The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1915. DRAINAGE CONNECTIONS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 127, 1 February 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1915. DRAINAGE CONNECTIONS.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post Aflh Wdiimarino News.) *

It was an innocent-looking little missive .that the owners - of a public pleasure-house caused to be read before the meeting of the Taihape Borough Council on Friday night, but it nevertheless ushered in a rather warm debate on what proved to be the most contentious question of the evening. The subject of the letter was the connection of a public theatre with, the Borough drainage system. Most councillors expressed their views on the subject, some with emphasis, and it certainly stands to their credit that they begrudged no lime in their endeavour to secure uniform justice to all. The bete uoir of having to connect up with the main, sewage artery lies in the fact that it lias

not. 1)0011 ianl down the centre 01 each street, causing those whose premises are farthest from it to have io make a much greater outlay than those fortunate ones who happen to be on the side it is. Councillors discussed it from nearly, if not from every possible point of view, but all their efforts •towards securing uniform expenditure'to all were baulked or foiled with inequalities of a more extreme and unjust character. it does not seem as though we are yet capable of planning any great public work so perfect as to create absolutely uniform burdens and privileges for all who are by law bound to work thereunder. Our drainage scheme, like those of all other towns in the Dominion, is no exception ; some fortunate ratepayers will have a preponderance of privilege, others of disadvantage. It is obvious that those 1 who own premises on the same side of the street that the main serfage artery lies will he able t® connect up at a less cost than those owners on the opposite side of tlm street, but as there seems to be no available way of. avoiding such a hardship the unfortunate ones will have to shoulder their little extra burden cheerfully. If it is any satisfaction to them to -nothat precisely similar conditions exist in other' centres of population, they may lake whatever comfort they are able from the fact, in a city like Wellington one'ratepayer may have to pay for deep excavation, pipes, pipe-laying, filling-in and levelling right across a wide street, while others only tunnel under the footpath. One councillor at the meeting urged that the Council should give

pnual advantage to all hy carrying all connections to property boundaries, but, as the Mayor pointed out, the expenditure for such work could only be taken out of the drainage loan account, and as that account was exhausted, the Council were heluless, unless another loan were raised, if another loan were raised it would, in common fairness, have to be large enough, not only to help those still unconnected, but also to reimburse those who have already paid for their connections.

W(M.*o it fftssible or permissible to pay lot* ffiiek-work out of ordinary rates, it would create a. great or hardship, as those who wort- not in the drainage area, and consequently could not benefit by the drainage scheme, would bo forced to pay equally with those who did benefit. The additional expensein question, luckily, is not a recurring’ one, and as the preservation of health is a. matter of vital importance the little extra first cost is a mere nothing when compared with the advantages a drainage scheme confers. On farms and in very small communities there is not the risk from insanitary conditions that obtains in large and populous centres. While a spout and gutter supply of water may not be any great menace to health in set in g up a state of contagion in isolated houses Did sparsely settled districts, it would create a positive danger of the most extreme character in cities and towns of any magnitude; and so it has been found to be absolutely necessary for public safety to make regulations of such a mandatory character that there may he no escape therefrom, for, unfortunately there are in every community' those who would rather take the risk of being (lie cause of a contagious epidemic than go to the first small cost of connectmg his premises with a drainage scheme. Property owners reap all the advantages of any sanitary improvements they may make, for while they are safeguarding the public health they are adding to the value of their properties. Any extensive epidemic of disease such as typhoid fever in Taihape would certainly not tend to make property in the Borough more valuable.