Water-Supply Rates.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19691, 7 August 1929, Page 10

Water-Supply Rates.

There is apparently no hope, while Christchureh is controlled by the pre- ! sent City Council, that the injustice inflicted upon owners of properties forming the original water-supply area of the City is going to be eased or terminated. It will be recalled that this area raised loans to pay for its own reticulation and ite own head works, and that no contribution was required or expected from owners of property elsewhere. When the City Council agreed, in response to requests, to extend the benefits of a high-pressure water-supply to the imretioulated portions of the enlarged j City it decided also, very properly and fairly, that the cost of the new reticulations should be borne by the arias to be served. Had the Council at the same time stipulated that the new areas should also bear the cost of providing the headvvorks and pumping plant required to supply the new mains wi h water it would have acted with equal propriety and fairness. What happened, however, was that separate loan propoeals were submitted to the ratepayers in each of the new areas to provide the eoet of the reticulations, and that a general loan proposal was submitted to the ratepayers of the entire water-supply area, old as well as new, to cover the coat of erecting and installing the additional headworka and pumping plant whieh had to be provided to give an adequate supply to the extensions without impairing the quality of the supply then being delivered to those who had paid for it. The local reticulation loans were all approved by the ratepayers, but the general loan proposal for enlarged head work* .wan rejected for the reason that the majority of the ratepayers saw in it a distinct injustice, namely, that at the extra cost was to be defrayed by a rate based on valuations, the original water-supply area, which was already bearing its own burden for the service it possessed, would be called on to provide the major portion of the cost of leading the supply to the mains in the outer areas of low valuation, and would be receiving no advantage of any kind from the additional expenditure. The Council nevertheless went ahead with the new reticulation* with loan authority, also with the headworks extensions without loan authority, bat adopted the device of providing for the cost of the latter by increasing the annual rate (based on valuations) over the water-supply district generally as it existed from time to time, which in affect meant that the outer districts got their supply of water (not their reticulations of course) practically for nothing. The latest development is that the water rate has been advanced almost fifty per cent, above its former high level to provide further funds to give the supply to the new areas, and the original water-supply district will again be charged with the payment of tb« bulk of this money. An additional injustice, already mentioned in The Press, is that a large proportion of the ooft of the refunds made to ratepayers in the new areas in respect of their own local supply, where this oost cannot

be met from the unexpended portion of a local reticulation loan, is also imposed upon the ratepayers of the central water-supply area. The outer areas are now in possession of a highpressure water-supply at a cost to them which is much less than it would have been had the actual cost been properly apportioned, and unless they expect to receive that service entirely for nothing—they are already enjoying it in part for nothing—they have no reason to complain when their water rate demands come in. With the original water-supply area, however, the case is vastly different.