The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1250, 7 February 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1874.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that naeds resistant, For the future in the distance,

And +Jif< cnoi that we can do

The fact that we have no special love for the Western Springs as the source of Auckland's water supply scarcely requires illustration at this time of day. Those connected with it have such an unfortunate way of creating suspicion through " ways that are dark and tricks that are vain " that the public may have been led to condemn what is really excellent in itself. Whenever any investigation is made relative to these springs some alleged proceedings of a suspicious character are bruited abroad ; and whether it be the feting of Mr Bell in the rural locality of New Mills, with his Worship the Mayor as M.C., or the damming up of the stream apparently with the object of hood-winking Mr Moriarty, the effect on the public mind is the same. These operations may have been carried out with the most harmless? intention possible. We have ourselves no particular antipathy to an evening party and good company, nor is there anything specially objectionable under ordinary circumstances in a miller damming up his stream, but unfortunately this perverse generation does not possess sufficient charity to view these matters in the kindliest light which they are capable of ; and, knowing this, it would on the whole be better, when these investigations are going on to s crupulously avoid anything having even the shadow of double dealing— sans peur el sans roproche. Had this been always the case with the Western Springs Mr Moriarty's report would have received a more impartial and probably a more favourable consideration. We must not, however, metaphorically speaking, exscind the public nose to

spite the public face, as we seem in

a fair way of doing over this water question. An examination of f.he Nihotupu enthusiasm might perhaps oven reveal reasons somewhat akin to those which set us aghast at the Western Springs. Bat let us put all these considerations — which are after all mean and unworthy—on one side, and look at the provable statements that have been made, and which may aid us in coming to a decision on th;s vexed question. That

Mr Moriarty's report has not received fair play at the hands of the press is capable of being easily demonstrated. The Herald's chief cause of complaint against him seems to be that he has made the Western Springs a " Hobson's choice" by rejecting the other proposals. Considering that Mr Moriarty was specially employed to decide among the rival schemes and indicate the best, we really pity him if he is to be taken to task for doing exactly what he was employed for. The Gross, however, is very much more unfair in its line of argu ment and its strictures than the Herald, the latter journal having really suspended judgment. It is evidently, with the Cross, a case of Nihotupu at any cost or no supply. Yesterday it complained that Mr Moriarty had not taken the City Surveyor with him to Waitakerei, but finding that this is contrary to fact it changes its tone and says—briefly expressed—" Oh, well !IE he took him he did'nt do as Mr. Anderson wanted him to do when he got him there !" Could any style of criticism be more absurd? Our contemporary proceeds to comment on a letter signed " Pro Bono Publico" which appeared in our last evening's issue, and attributes it to the Mayor. It considers the letter " conveys absolute censure on Mayor and Council," because forsooth they did not instruct Mr Moriarty to make surveys and take levels of the Nihotupu scheme—a work which would have occupied weeks in execution, entailed very great unauthorised expense, and must have landed the Council in precisely the same position as they were before, except that one more engineer's report would be added to increase the con - fusion caused by the six or seven already in existence. It was well understood that Mr Moriarty was employed to report upon the existing reports and surveys, his judgment being aided by a personal inspection of the various recognised sources of supply. Our contemporary gives currency to various rumours about the late proceedings at Western Springs. Those with reference to the damming up of the stream certainly require investigation, but really the cock and bull story about a certain surveying party having stated after returning from Western Springs that they had been visiting "the place where the water was to be taken from, as if the whole thing had already been I comfortably settled!" looks too much like a trumped tale, or the fruit of eaves-dropping to have much weight with the public. We come, however, now to the most grossly unjust part of the Gross's leader. Yesterday we pointed out the unfairness of capitalizing working expenses, and treating it as capital, but today the Cross out-Herod's Herod by not only including in its estimate of the cost of the Western Springs works £750, price of boiler, and £500 for land, allowed by Mr Moriarty as compensation to Low and Motion, but it also capitalizes with other working expenses £350 per annum for labour and fuel necessary to work the boiler

when purchased; and then, in order to j bring up the amount to the largest possible sum adds £30,000, which Mr Hurst, opening his mouth as usual to the widest extent possible, mentioned in order to test the extent of Mr Moriarly's pi'eference for Western Springs over Nihotupu. By this beautiful manipulation of figures the Cross manages to get the amount of compensation up to £38,200 ! ! To this it adds £33,800 ' capitalised working expenses, and makes ! the total cost of the works £168,714, or as it innocently remarks. £34,000 in excess of Mr Bell's estimate for the Nihotupu scheme. If this is not juggling with figures in order to deceive its readers we have never seen that operation performed, not even by that great master of the art, our Colonial Treasurer. The Gross having mentioned Mr Bell's estimate of Nihotupu works let us see what would be the result with the same process of figuring applied to them as that used by the Gross in the case of the Western Springs. The following statement will show : — Cost of works £131,089 Capitalised cost of £2160 for working expenses 43,200 Compensation for land for reservoirs, pipe track, &c, (underestimated) .. .. 10,000 £184,85 i) But this kind of reasoning is so absurd that we will continue it no longer. The effect of Mr Moriarty's report is that for £66,714, including all reasonable compensation, we can procure a larger and a better supply of water from the Western Springs than we coixld for more than double the expenditure on the Nihotupu scheme. If this is the case—and the Council can very easily ascertain the flow from Western Springs by independent observation, and can test the question of compensation—then we say their decision should no longer be delayed by ignorant or wilfully perverted criticism, which is evidently tendinginthedirectionofno supply at all: Forwith all the newspaper influence used in that direction it seems impossible to get an outside engineer of any ability to say Nihotupu is best when it isn't—at least that seems the only conclusion we can come to with the facts before us—and what the dickens is to be done if no competent man will put his name to the scheme and say to the Council, V Here you are, it will cost one hundred and thirty thousand pounds when you could do the work better for sixy-eight thousand pounds, but never mind —go-a-head, the public will pay for it; there's nothing like gravitation."