End in sight for last night cart

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 6

End in sight for last night cart

New Zealand’s last night cart will disappear in two years because of a subsidy announced yesterday by the member of Parliament for Christchurch North, Mr Mike Moore. The Government will pay $215,000 for a sewerage scheme at Kainga, just north of Christchurch, that would eventually link Kainga to a pressurised sewerage main at Brooklands, Mr Moore said. His tongue firmly in his cheek, Mr Moore said he was particularly pleased he could announce the subsidy before the decision leaked. “Announcing this gives me as much pleasure as the butter deal. “Kainga residents have been fighting for the last 50 years for the right to freehold their properties, and the bureaucracy has been shovelling paper on the sewerage issue for about 30 years,” he said. Kainga is the last place

in New Zealand to have sewage removed by night cart.

“It comes every Wednesday night, and smells great in the middle of summer,” said the president of the Kainga Residents’ Association, Mr Bruce Richards. The 100 homes served by the night cart lie on North Canterbury Catchment Board land. Mr Richards said the residents had battled for years to own the freehold to their properties, and for a more hygienic sewerage system. Frustrated by “Mickey Mouse” bureaucracy, the residents turned to their local member of Parliament, Mr Moore. He pushed a bill through Parliament earlier this year which will effectively allow the Catchment Board land to be freeholded to the occupiers without public tender or auction, Mr Richards said.

Mr Moore said he had been battling on the sewerage subsidy issue for some time, reminding Government departments of a quote from former United States president, Lyndon Johnson, “You’ve either got to make a decision every time you’re sitting there, or get off the dunny.” “Now the old battlers of Kainga will be able to own their own property and flush a 100 like every other New Zealander,” he said.

Mr Richards warned, however, that residents should not expect an overnight solution to the problem of the night cart. The Christchurch Drainage Board’s sewerage main at Brooklands was still two years away. The cost of the sewerage scheme would be about $622,000, and would be financed by the subsidy and by the money paid by residents for their freehold, he said.