Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1907. WATER AND DRAINAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXVII, Issue 7084, 24 January 1907, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1907. WATER AND DRAINAGE.

It cannot be said that Ashburton is without proofs of municipal enterprise ; but neither can it be said that it presents as many as it should, in view of the age, the prosperity, aad the population of the town. In two important point?, indeed, the borough is discreditably deficient—it has no municipal water supply for domestic purpoeea, and no system of drainage. Were it not that as yet the town is not densely built upon, and that it occupies a singularly sanitary position in the centre of one of the most salubrious plains in the world, these two grave drawbacks must ere now have made Ashburton a moat undesirable place to live it. Yet the town's positive natural advantages are made to have only a negative character, on aooount of the failure of the people and the Corporation to make it the very desirable place to live in it would be, if it had a good water supply and a thorough system of drainage. Its lack of these requisites means several things, all utilitarian in nature. Without a constant and adequate supply of pure water, the civilised comfort of the community oan be only comparative, and its average of health must be none the less depreciated ; and the absenoe of drainage must tand to the sama results, and must positively aggravate those that are due to the want of a proper eupply of pure water, Thui fche life of the people who are already here is distinctly handicapped in various ways, and people who are not here are discouraged from cjming here to reside, and no doubt also to some extent, from investing in business or property. Then there are the rates of insurance. In the light of purely practical reasons, therefore, it is seen that the people and the Corporation havo erred grievously in not, long ere now, securing for the town a good supply of the purest water, and a thorough system of drainage. These views of ours are not singular, as may be seen from the letter which appears in another column over the signature of Mr David Thomaf, one of the oldest and best known commercial men not only of Ashburton but of Canterbury. Mr Thomas writes with great earnestness, and we trust that his letter may generate a corresponding enthusiasm in the minds of other intelligent men with a permanent stake in the place. It is really the Corporation which should act in the matter, but doubtless it will act all the sooner and all the more effectively if Mr Thomas and men like himself will, now that ths subject has been vigorously revived, stick to it w.th vigour, and collect snoh information and so co-operate in action, that it must end iv the community and the Corporation facing the whole projeot in a thoroughly practical and businesslike spirit. It may bs observed that the Invercargill scheme tentatively mentioned by Mr Thomas is not quite so satisfactory as people at a distance imagine ifc, In a leading article, the Southland Times of Tuesday last 6ays that the Inveroargill Town Council cannot get away from the fact " that during the dry spell just ended the daily consumption of tower water exceeded the daily supply by at least 31,000 gallons. Darin? the fortnight's drought the reserve of 660,000 gallons, with which the new year was commenced, dwindled almost to vanishing point. Most fortuitously, it would seem, with the extinction of the reserve came a cold snap followed by welcome raine, which prevented an actual shortage in tVie town." The Invercargill Town Council itself has been discussing the subject in a way which leads our contemporary to assume " that the Town Engineer will be requested to advise the Water Committee as to the best ujeans to place the water eupply on a better footing." "Tbia," observes the Times, "is a matter of such vital importance that it should be earnestly tackled without delay. . For instance, a thoroughly up-to-date sanitary servioe is well nigh impossible of achievement without a practically inexhaustible water eupply. The efficiency and reliability of a fire extinguishing service also depend on tha samo condition, and if the Council wishes to realise its ambition of having the town plaoed in the firat olass in regard to insurance, this must always be an essential preliminary. It must be admitted that a gravitation system would be dxceedingly costly to introduce and expensive to maintain. Tha alternative is an artesian supply, but the difficulty is that there is no certainty of &n experimental bore proving a success." However, it is added "advice is forthcoming to the effect that a bore penetrating 1100 feet, costing jfilOOO, would solve the problem, and it is a question whether the Council will elect to undertake the ' gamble/ which may lose them a round sum, if it does not return the priceless blessing of a perpetual water oupply." These observations may be of some service in connection with the matter as it stands in Ashburton; but just at first the chief thi' g to desire is that the conscience of the community and the Corporation may be moved to action by Mr Thomas's appeal.