INCREASED COSTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 139, 14 June 1943, Page 5

INCREASED COSTS

FIGURES DEFENDED SUPPORT OF EXPERTS "Lest the legion of people who are Waikato-minded on the matter of a water supply, feel that it is impracticable, let me say the proposals to the water supply conference were backed by financial and technical authorities," said Mr. J. J. Mulvihill, in a statement to-day.

"At no time did I pose as possessing a knowledge of civil engineering, although it suited Mr. Tyler to set that up in order to knock it down," he added. "The long-term borrowing table was adopted after a conference with a member of the Local Bodies' Loans Board. The shorter term certainly would have increased the ultimate cost of 6.56 d to 7.6 d per 1000 gallons, as against the 14.85 d assessed by the City Council. "Th,e suburban bodies were justified in adopting Mr. W. A. Gray's estimate" of £680,000 increased costs, advancing it to £1,050.600. This, is the exact; percentage increase between the City Council's estimates of £1,126,000 in 1931 and £1,739,000 in 1943. Sight has been lost of the safeguard of a definite insistence on an independent investigation granted by the Minister of Public Works, except that it is to follow and not precede the' Lower Nihotupu scheme. So there is nothing in Mr. Tyler's reference to 'fallacious and meaningless figures. ,-

"The report was subscribed by me as being 'compiled,' because, where it referred to technical matters, reliable engineering advice was being quoted. One undoubted authority examined the Hurnia scheme for the dual purposes of hvdroelectricity and water supply, but abandoned it as uneconomic when I produced the Star's illustration of the ankle-deep flow in the summer months.

"Mr. Tyler broke all accepted forms of courtesy and procedure when he withheld from the suburban local bodies the voluminous answers he prepared, dated June 1, in answer to their submissions.

"What greater inaccuracy emanated from the conference than Mr. A Hum's statement that 'at no time have the people been asked to do more than to avoid waste?' Consumers will recall the frantic and continuous advertising appeals to reduce the normal 60-70 gallons per capita daily consumption to eight gallons! "The local bodies may press for a decision on the question of a water board. They will not impede, rather will they assist in bringing in, the Lower Nihotupu supply, in which time and cost will be against the City Council. Mr. Allum repeatedly forbade Mr. Tyler to answer a vital question when I was seeking to show the danger of allowing an increase of only 9.75 per cent in the 1929-31 estimate for the Lower Nihotupu scheme, when 54.5 per cent was deemed necessary by the City Council in their own figures for a Lower Waikato scheme. The subsequent explanation given that no decision has been made between masonry, core, earth and multiple arch dams does not bridge the gap between these percentage increases."