The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1933. AUCKLAND'S WATER SUPPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 257, 31 October 1933, Page 6

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

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1933. AUCKLAND'S WATER SUPPLY.

J*or 27ic cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tie can do

The confusion that has arisen over water supply for Greater Auckland is a fresh proof of the essential weakness in the local system (or rather lack of system)—the absence of a central authority over the whole metropolitan area. There is the City Council with its Waitakere supply, in which a very large sum has been sunk, and plans for going further afield in the future. There are the northern boroughs, unable to agree among themselves as to a source of supply. One of them has concluded an agreement with the city, but elsewhere there is a desire to see what the private company now asking Parliament for a charter can supply in the way of Avatei* from the Waikato River. In the meantime, people who depend upon Lake Pupuke for water must be awaiting the coming of summer with real apprehension. Then there are other boroughs that support the Waikato project, looking to it to furnish water at a cheaper rate than the city charges, and there are still others that get their water from a source within the metropolitan area, which must sooner or later be condemned. The opposition of the City Council to the Bill conferring rights on the company to bring water from the Waikato is easily understandable. The city has invested much money in the Waitakeres, and if it loses customers, loss will fall on the city ratepayers. The Council, however, has made the mistake all along of thinking too much of its own interests and not enough of those of the surrounding districts. It has never fully appreciated the point of view of outside bodies, and they on their part have never quite realised the position of the Council. The large profits that used to be made out of water, and transferred to general account when they should have gone to depreciation or capital account, rankle in the minds of suburban bodies. There was more than once a shortage of water, and the city customers are not satisfied that this will not occur again. Some of these customers think they can make a better bargain and seek a share in the control of their supply. They also resent the city's attempt to use the water supply as a lever to bring them into the city. Moreover, the City Council recognises that some day it must go further afield, and though the Hunua Ranges are now preferred to the Waikato River, the question can hardly be regarded as settled. And the Council made a tactical mistake when it declined to hear what the company had to say. It should have invited the fullest discussion. The case for placing control in a body representing all consumers grows stronger. If the Bill goes through, there will be two separate and rival major schemes to supply Greater Auckland with water. If the Birkenhead agreement proceeds without the adherence of other North Shore boroughs, one pipe line will be laid down, and if other I customers are joined from this part of Auckland, the line will have to be duplicated. There is a means to hand of securing central and general control, which has been suggested by Mr. Bloodworth, and is elaborated by him in an article to-day. The authority of the Drainage Board will have to be enlarged to meet the new plans for the drainage of Greater Auckland. Why not give the Drainage Board control of all the water supply for the whole area? Water and drainage naturally go together, and the new Drainage Board could quite well control the two utilities. Its decisions, engineering and financial, would command more confidence, because the community would feel that it represented all the people and had no sectional interests to serve. All the local bodies in Auckland should be making a combined effort to establish such an authority, which would put an end for all time to district rivalries and jealousies and inadequate planning with regard to these two essential services.