PURE WATER FOR PETONE

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 75, 26 September 1916, Page 5

PURE WATER FOR PETONE

CATCHMENT AREA SOLD TO PRIVATE PERSON.

MINISTER'S UNSATISFACTORY COMMUNICATION. The Petone Borough Council is still being exercised over the fact that the Government has sold a large portion of tho catchment area of its water supply to a private individual for farming purposes, in spite of the Prime Minister having promised to give careful consideration to a request from the council to have the land vested in that body in order that the purity of its water I supply should be safeguarded.,.. . A letter was riu-d at butt svenina'6'

meeting of the council from Sir Francis Bell, Minister of Lands, in which he stated that it was impossible to give effect to the council's desire to purchase the land at the reduced price of £5 14s per acre, at whicii it had been sold to a returned soldier. The Mayor pointed out that the council had made no such request. There had never been a mention of a proposal to purchase by the council. The policy of the council had always been that the land should be vested in that body in the same manner as very much larger areas had been >madd over to the city in order to preserve the purity of its water supply. The letter from the Minister failed to reply to the council's request for information as to what had been done in connection with the Prime Minister's promise to give the matter of vesting the land in the council his careful consideration. This was the vital point to which the council desired a reply in its letter of August last, and the Minister had now totally ignored the point. Councillor Anderson and others endorsed the Mayor's remarks, and said that Petone only wanted a tithe of what the city had freely got. On the motion of Councillor M'Kenzie, it was decided to request the Minister to give a definite reply to the point at issue.

In the meantime the council is in negotiation with the purchaser to ensure such conditions as will safeguard the' purity of the water.