WATER CHARGES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1908, Page 7

WATER CHARGES.

m COUNCIL AND HARBOUR BOARD STATEMENT BY MAYOR OF WELLINGTON. "The most striking feature in connection with tho water supply troubles, of the Harbour Board is that, according to its own showing, the water last year only cost it, £4547, and the amount it derived from tho shipping was £6566; so that the Harbour Board in addition to getting a profit of £2000, got the water for its machinery and all its other purposes for nothing." The foregoing statement was made by the Hon. Mr. Hislop, Mayor of Wellington, to-day, in reply to a question by a Post reporter as to what were the merits of the claim by tho Wellington Harbour Board for a, reduction in the charges made by the City Council for supplying water to tho board, concerning which question » discussion took place at yesterday's meeting of the Harbour Board. In elaboration of his statement of the position, Mr. Hislop Eaid that the application for a reduction which the board sent to tho council was based upon a matter which the Harbour Board did not understand, which was not within its functions to understand, and its reference to which was considered by the council as quite outsido the application, and one to which tho board had no right to refer, especially in its state of ignoiance as to the real basis of it. All that the council did know was that the water for which the so-called large charge was made was supplied to the shipping, and that so lar from the Harbour Board considering it was a high price, it put on an additional 50 per cent, when it supplied it to the shipping. The arrangement under which the water was supplied — and which must be presumed to have been made aftor very careful consideration by the board and tho council — was entered into in 1892, when the surplus water of the city was greater than it- now is ; and no objection had been taken to the charge during the sixteen years of its continuance, so far as he was aware, until tho present occasion. When tho Harbour Board showed that it was really of opinion that too high a chargo was being made to tho shipping (by reducing its charges to something like what they now pay the council) no doubt tho council would lend a more sympathetic ear to the board's application than it had in the past. As to tho statement made by the Mayor of Onslow concerning tho supply of water to that borough at 9d per gallon, Mi. Hislop had nbt had time- to look into the history of tho charge, but his recollection was that the charge was fixed as a part consideration for the consent of the then Onslow Board to the use of the road for carrying the city mains; but of this he wa& not quito sure. And tho charge was not for reticulated water, but for water taken direct from tho mains. Regarding the charge to be made to Miramar, one of the conditions of that charge being fixed so low was that tho water is only to be drawn off the mains after midnight and before 4 a.m.— a period when there is less demands upon the water supply thnn at any other time. By the time the Miramar supply will bo wanted, the city will probably havo its second line of mains, and the whole of the income derived from the source will bo practically found ' money, as Miramar Borough undertakes to draw off the water, store it, and reticulate it to all consumers. ONSLOW'S POSITION. Mr. J. G. Harkress, Mayor of Onslow, whon questioned on the point concerning his borough, mado by Mr. Hislop in the above remarks, said he had no knowledge of any "part consideration such as thai meiitioned above. The supply had been granted to Onslow tor six years past, and he knew of no special arrangement. Besides, tho corporation had agreed to supply Miramar at the same rate, in two years' time. VVhy then, should the Hirbour Bo?rd be. charged on tho very much higher scale? It was his opinion ;hat in eighteen months from the prodont time tho Harbour Board would be able to secure from Khandallah all the water it needed, at a charge of from sixpenco to ciehtpenco per gallon.