OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 February 1940, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

OUR SHORTAGE OF WATER iTo The Editor). Sir—Tn Friday’s issue of your paper I notice letters objecting to solicitor's fees being charged against offenders convicted under the water regulations. This is a very trifling affair as the convicting magistrate probably took the solicitor's fee into consideration when fixing the penalty. What is a very serious matter is the fact that about 40 of Masterton's most respected citizens were in one day branded as law-break-ers. This is surely an indication of the harshness and injustice of the broken regulations. In a season when our rivers have carried an abundance of water, the citizens of Masterton have been forced to break the law or see their gardens ruined. It is no answer to. say that water is available on so m'any hours per week. In the drier parts of the borough the watering hours are inadequate except perhaps in the case of the smallest gardens. The difficulty about fixed hours .is that if a man's business takes him out of town on a watering day he can't make up his lost time. The garden must go dry until next watering day—or to save his garden he must break the law. This is an intolerable situation.

Masterton has grown rapidly during recent years, but nothing has been done to increase the quantity of water available.

It would appear that the Borough Council has failed in its duty to the citizens. Surely it is high time the council realised that, our water supply is quite inadequate and fails to meet legitimate requirements. The suggestion to spend a huge sum of money on baths while ordinary citizens can't get a supply of water for their reasonable requirements is surely fantastic—l am. etc., —PLAIN BILL. Masterton, February 26.