THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1908. THE DRAINAGE AND WATER SUPPLY QUESTIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9054, 1 April 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1908. THE DRAINAGE AND WATER SUPPLY QUESTIONS.

A stage has been reached in the Masterton drainage question from which there can be no turning back, nor mti3t there be any delay in putting the scheme into operation. Mr G. Laing-Meason, the eminent engineer, who was invitedjto report upon the extension of the water and drainage systems, has submitted his report to the Masterton Borough Council, and, so.far as the drainage question i 3 concerned, has demonstrated to the futility of the delay which the Mayor has for many months'' forced upon the Councillors. Mr Lsing-Meason has, with some comparatively small variations, practically endorsed Mr Douglas Dobson's report made while the latter gentleman was the Council's engineer, and has pointed out the utter inadequacy of the present septic tank to perform the work cast upon it by a small area of the borough, let alone what would be necessary under the proposed extension scheme. Mr Laing-Meason's views and Mr Dobson's are in the main identical, and the former engineer has emphatically stated that "there is no other possible solution of the drainage question."

Nat only has Mr Dobson bsen vindicated in the dual report submitted to the Borough Council last night, but the attitude we have taken up on both subjects- -water and drainage extension —has been strikingly upheld. We stated after exhaustive investigation that the present system could be made effective at the cost of a few hundred pounds, and Mr Laing-Meason sets down the cost of a system thit will give the residents an abnormal supply at £9O0 —a system which does away with the necessity for duplication of mains and other costly works such as the Mayor contemplated, and which Mr Laing-Meason estimates would need-

lessly involve an expenditure of nearly £II,OOO. * * * * * Writing on July sth last year in regard to Mr Dobson's drainage scheme we said: —"In regard to the proposed outfall works at the Waingawa, we are informed that the proposed site is really the only suitable site available, and it is a site of which the District Health Officer has approved." Mr Laing-Meason now says the same thing. On October 19th we wrote:—The position of the outfall works is inadequate, while the same remark applies to the sewage farm." ,Here again we are borne out by the report of Mr Laing-Meason. The Mayor then practically turned upon us and asked if we thought "the Council should plunge into a £60,000 drainage loan?" This was absurd in the face of the fact that Mr Dobson as Borough Engineer had estimated the cost of the whole scheme at about £30,000; and the absurdity is by the estimate being fixed by the latest expert at considerably under Mr Dobson's figures. ***** Not only were we right in our advocacy of the extension of the drainage system, but we have been proved to be right when at a later date we said that the present drainage system was inadequate, and that the septic tank was a source of pollution to water and soil for many acres around. Mr Laing-Meason's report discloses a most serious state of affairs in this connection. The tank is shown to be too small for the sewage which goes into it from: the present comparatively small drainage area, and the defects in the sewers are such that they are merely drains carrying over the land sewage that has not been rendered innocuous. The words of the report are—"l examined the contents [of the septic tank], and I estimated that at least two-thirds of its capacity was filled with sludge. With such very reduced water space the sewage was, of course, traversing the tank very rapidly, and as it was extremely attenuated (little more than slightly dirty water) no bacteriological action whatever could have been taking place." The report urges the speedy carrying out of the extension work.

We would now like to ask the Council what it has to say in defence of its inactivity in the face of the facts disclosed by Mr Laing-Meason. Ever since July 2nd there has been on the records of the Council a resolution moved by CrPaul.'ng: "That steps be taken to place a scheme for the extension of drainage (approximate cost £30,000) before the ratepayers, and that it be ascertained whether they are |favourable to such a scheme, conditionally upon the Treasury advancing £IO,OOO per annum at 4 per cent, for the work." Nine months have elapsed, and the vox populi of Masterton has not been taken, or sought to be taken. What answer has the Council to igive for its delay? We can conceive of no adequate reply. #♦***♦

Perhaps now that assuratr-e has been made "double sure" by Mr Laing-Meason's approval of the exBorough Engineer's report, and his insistence upon the urgency and feasibility of the latter'a scheme, there will be no further dallying in po important a matter. We would like before concluding to express gratification at the lucid report of Mr Laing-Meason, and the frank manner in which he had admitted that Mr Dobson's "general arrangement [of the scheme of sewerage] cannot be improved upon."