THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1907. BOROUGH DRAINAGE QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8861, 22 October 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1907. BOROUGH DRAINAGE QUESTION.

It is remarkable that anyone perusing our leading article of the 19th inst, in regard to improving and extending the borough drainage, should come to the conclusion that we advocated that the Borough Council should plunge into a £60,000 drainage loan. Yet, apparently, such an interpretation has been placed upon it. If it is true, a3 it is alleged to b'e, that the town is insanitary, and that this condition applies to the drained central area as well as to the undrained suburb, then, as we have pointed out, the urgent necessity for the Council speedily remedying such a state of affairs is extremely manifest. It is quite impossible for the Borough Council to "plunge" into the loan. Engineering reports, and various matters have to be considered, and different things done, before the scheme can be advanced to any marked extent, while any one at all familiar with the different steps that have to be taken knows that some considerable time must elapse before the loan can be raised. Most people are aware that the approximate cost has been estimated by Mr Dobson at £30,030, not £60,000. At a. meeting on July 2nd, the Mayor is reported to have spoken as follows: "The sum of, approximately, £30,000 was involved, and this, of ccurse, meant a big scheme. But it was no!; as big as it seemed. In fact, as far as he could make out, it was on much the same lines as the original scheme for the institution of the drainage in Masterton." At the same meeting of the Council a motion was carried to the effect that steps bo taken to place a scheme for the extension of drainage (approximate cost £30,000) before the ratepayers, and to ascertain whether the. ratepayers were favourable to such a scheme, conditionally upon the Treasury advancing £IO,OOO per annum at 4 percent, for the work. The question of extending the drainage is important enough, hut we have reason

to believe that the inadequacy of the drainage system in existence is also a serious matter. In an interview with a representative of the Age, yesterday, the Sanitary Inspector of the Borough stated that "with proper and effective drainage, and the absence of cess-pools, the number of infectious diseases would be greatly reduced, and even where they did occur, there would be, with ordinary precautions, little danger of the disease spreading." We do not propose to discuss the question further on the present occasion, as wc intend to refer to it again at an early date, and will endeavour to lay the facts, as they appear to us, before the public.