Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MAY 6, 1940 AN IMPROVED WATER SUPPLY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MAY 6, 1940 AN IMPROVED WATER SUPPLY.

AT the poll 10 1)0 taken on Wednesday. Masterton ratepayers will have an opportunity of deciding whether anything’ is to be done during the coming winter to improve our admittedly inadequate and unsatisfactory water supply. Living in a land of perennial rivers, and with ample supplies of water at all times running to waste in nearby areas, we have had the unpleasant experience for years past of having to endure, during the summer months, narrow restrictions on tin. use of’water'’within the borough limits. In some parts 01. the town there is a poor supply of water during these months even, for the most essentia] household purposes, gardens suffer for lack of adequate watering, and the hosing of lawns is prohibited. . . An improvement in the water supply is of the highest importance also from the point of ■view ol tire risk. At best, our water-pressure available for fire-fighting is by no means as high as it ought to be. At times, in existing conditions, the pressure runs dangerously low. The proposal on which ratepayers are to vote on Wednesday provides for the raising ol a loan ol £10,500 to be expended on the cleaning and concrete lining of the water mains from the reservoir to the borough. It is admittedly regrettable that a more comprehensive scheme of water-supply improvement cannot he put in hand —a scheme providing lor the construction of an intake in the Waingawa Gorge, together with a new and large storage reservoir-—but it is considered certain, that the Local Government Loans Board would refuse at, present to sanction the loan of some £60,000 needed Io finance works on that scale.

There are two main grounds on which the works it is tiroposed to put in. hand immediately are recommended. In the first place, the concrete lining of the mains will increase very considerably the flow of water and the available supply. As detailed information lately made public by the Borough Council has shown, the treatment of mains in the manner proposed in Wasterton has been carried out in nineteen towns in Now Zealand, and in all instances with satisfactory results, the flow of water through the pipes being increased by as much as one hundred per cent. In the second place, it is emphasised that the concrete lining of the mains definitely would form part, of a major scheme of water-supply improvement to be undertaken when funds can be raised lor that purpose.

An overwhelming case plainly is made out tor proceeding with the work proposed by the Borough Council. The cleaning and lining of the mains w/iH augment the available water supply very considerably, and when the time comes to provide a fully adequate supply,'the work now proposed and the money to be spent upon it will not be wasted. The benefit of an appreciably increased, water supply for all purposes, including that of fire protection, may be obtained at comparatively moderate cost, entailing an addition of just under one-third of a penny ill the pound to the rates—an increased charge ol 5s (id per annum on a section valued at £2OO, or of £l. 7s (id on a property of an unimproved value of £l,OOO. A dispassionate verdict on the. proposals' evidently must be that the benefits offered outweigh very considerably the cost entailed. One point that needs to be emphasised is that proposals like that to be voted upon on Wednesday are more often defeated by the apathy of those who approve them than by positive opposition. It may be taken for granted that all who oppose the proposal will register their votes. In order that a true expression of opinion may be obtained, it is most essential that all qualified voters who approve and support the proposal should also make a point of going to the poll.