WATER SUPPLY FOR WAITOHI FLAT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1928, 10 August 1889, Page 2

WATER SUPPLY FOR WAITOHI FLAT.

TO THE EDITOE. Sie,—l should be glad of a little space to offer a few remarks on Mr A. M. Clark’s letter re the above subject. Seeing, however, that a meeting has very properly been convened by him for Saturday • J (at which I hope all interested will ] attend), not much need be said in the > meantime, as the matter can then be well ventilated. I wish now to ask ratepayers to defer making up their minds to oppose until both sides of the question are looked well into. I feel sure that those who are opposed to the scheme are magnifying the obstacles that do exist, and at the same time depreciating the benefit the district would reap from a good supply pf pure water. The cost of construction, interest, and maintenance are being placed much higher than is likely to result, while, on the other hand, the makeshift supply of water,, by means] of dams which is held,put as being a satisfactory alternative is in fact a most unsatisfactory one. These dams are nothing better thanfilth traps, which may at any time disseminate typhoid or diphtheria among those who have to use milk from cows depending only on this stagnant and filthy supply of water. No kind of stock would touch it if fcfoidabl.Oi wgument : or appeal to ratepayers, to avoid furkHe? taxation oh the ground that it will 5 increase the difficulties we are now laboring under, viz., that of disposing of our properties in exchange for foreign capital, seems to me strangely out of v place here. .1 have always understood a ■ tax to mean an enforced to State necessities from which no direct return is expected. The present I question is that of purchasing a 3 needful and valuable water-supply, and the answer will be given solely on the ground, Is it worth the cost ? If this is taxation so is every other expenditure on farming plant or machinery. It is also new to me, and ' will, I think, be so to many others, to • learn that farmers are suffering from the difficulty of disposing of their properties. I had certainly been pf,, the, opinion—a wrong one, probably—n that the main difficulty was from a totally opposite direction, viz., that of obtaining laud, either to rent or buy, at a price commensurate with the ; value 1 of the produce to be got off itf ! Perhaps after all Mr Clark offers the., true solution: Never mmd the water-, supply. Get hold of foreign capital J; and, I presume, clear out for some place where water troubles are not.— -i I am, etc,, J. Talbot. Eangitira Talley, August Bth, 1889.