The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1888.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 240, 11 October 1888, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1888.

Tor the caute that lacks assistance, For tho rnoas that needs resistance, For tho future in the distance, And the geod that we can do.

The question of supplementing our present water supply is again occupying the attention of the City Council, and there is no doubt that before many years the city will be compelled to embark' upon, some schero • to bring into .Auckland water either from the Nihotopu River or the Wairoa. The Council has gone on contracting with suburban bodies to supply -their requirements,, and wisely so, for various reasons, one of the most obvious being the fact that when the time comes to embark in a scheme to bring water from a distance, the combined strength of the city and .suburbs, using one set of reservoirs, wilt 1 enable f.his to be more cheaply done. It is also manifest that these • suburban bodies could not carry out sepaifcte schemes, and that the city would be acting in an unwarrantably churlish spirit if it refused to allow the suburbs to participate upop equitable terms in the advantages derived from a good water supply.

While, however, fully endorsing the policy of combining city axitd suburbs in this important municipal'work, it is not difficult to see that the policy pursued will entail upon tha ratepayers of Auckland,atanearlierperwd thasp would otherwise have been tie case> the

necessity for seeking a supplementary supply. The pollution of the present supply by the extension of population upon the watershed was always to be feared; and perhaps the inclusion of districts which may assist in preserving the purity of the water is a positive gain. Still, the increased consumption has already warned the Council that in the event of a dry summer, the supply will be un- [ equal to the calls upon it, and there may be a necessity to enforce the condition inserted in all the suburban contracts empowering the Corporation to sacrifice the suburbs to the wants of the city. This is a contingency to be avoided if possible, and therefore the resolutions carried at the last meeting of the Council, to conserve and utilise in the fullest measure the available supply at the Western Springs and Edgecumbe's Creek, is in the right direction. Whatever doubt there may be as to the success of boring operations in the region of the Springs with a view of increasing the supply in the near future, there can be very little as to the proposal to use salt water for the streets and sewers. The wonder is that this has not been j done before. It may not be so convenient to use sea water for tlie streets on the higher levels of the city, such j as Karangahape Road and upper Hobson-street, owing to their distance from the harbour; but Queen-street runs right to the water's edge, and could therefore be easily watered by the briny element. Last summer, at one time, fears were entertained regarding the adequacy of the' supply, and since then the district of Eden Terrace has been attached, and the Mt. Eden district also is having the pipes laid. These districts will cause a considerable increase in the consumption, and as the city receives a fair price for such connection, the revenue of the corporation would suffer were the supply to run out during the summer; besides which, the districts named would find themselves in an awkward fix if, after dispensing with their former conserving appliances, they should be told that the city could not continue to supply them through the summer. Bad it certainly is to be without coal, but to be without water is infinitely worse.

But the adoption of prompt measures to conserve the present water supply should not divert the attention of the Council from the question of devising some practical scheme for increasing the supply to meet the demands of tlie city and suburbs permanently. The matter is now becoming one ot urgency, and while we do not object to a small expenditure on the boring operations which have been authorised, we believe that the Council will yet have to go farther afield for a supply, and that the preliminary steps towards providing for that contingency should no longer be delayed.