ESTIMATES EXCEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 48, 25 August 1926, Page 10

ESTIMATES EXCEEDED

DRAINAGE OF ONSLOW AND KARORI

REASONS FOR ADDITIONAL COST

RAPID EXPANSION OF DISTRICTS.

A brief clause of the report of the Works Committee to tho City Council at its last meeting rocommending that steps should be taken to obtain an additional Bum of £36,100 for the completion of drainage (loan) works at Onslow and Karori was as briefly discussed, tho decision being that a sum of £9800 should be raised (being the permissible 10 per cent. on the loan) by tho council under tho usual authority given by the Act, and that the Board of Health should be requested to give authority for the raising of an additional £26,300 in order that the work might be completed.

The several reasons why the work could not be carried out within the estimate are certainly of real interest to citizens. Tho chief of them was that both districts have developed so rapidly that very considerable extension had to be embarked upon much sooner than was anticipated.

Tho amounts of the loans recommended by the lato City Engineer (My. W. H. Morton) were:—Onslow £50,000, Karori £48,000—but, to begin wifli, tho net amount of each loan fell short, chiefly because the loans were raised at a discount, and, in addition,, the first year's interest and sinking fund had to be paid out of each, as well as the costs of raising the money and bringing it to Wellington. The shortage on that account amounted to £5342 in the case of Onslow and £5172 in the case of Karori. PENCE DO MOUNT UP. Another reason was that soon after tho estimate was submitted the rate of wages for casual labour was raised by one penny per hour, amounting in the last two and a half years to over £1000 in each district.

Then again, on account of objections raised by the owners of the land on which it was proposed to construct the septic tank for Karori, the council decided upon another site about half a mile further down stream, entailing an additional expenditure of about £2000, while the size of part of the main sewer had to be increased from six inches to nine inches, at a cost of £500, in order that sewage at present eventually discharging into the harbour might be diverted to the new septic tanks at Karori. ALSO AT ONTSLOW.

Similarly at Onslow it was found necessary to select another site for the septio tank in order to avoid water pollution above certain works using the stream in the Ngahauranga Gorge, and as the extension was in very rough country where all materials had to be carried by hand, the additional cost was about £.2500. EFFECT OF SUBTRACTIONS. Up to the end of June, about fifteen miles of sewer had been laid in Karori, and to complete the proposals another five miles have to be laid, at a cost of approximately £10,000. To meet that there was in hand a balance of only £4100, but had not the amounts mentioned above been subtracted from the original estimate of £4fr,000, thi:: balance would have been £13,772, more than ample to complete the programme.

In Onslow, nearly sixteen miles have been laid, and the length required is about seven and three-quarter miles, at an estimated cost of £15,500. To meet this there is a balance of £6800, but if the amounts of the cost of raising the loan, first year's interest and sinking fund, extra cost through rise in wages, and extension to Ngahauranga road, amounting in all to £8840, had been available, the work would have been completed within the estimate.

BUILDING ABOVE ANTICIPATIONS.

In both districts, building has proceeded much faster than was anticipated when the original report was made, and it is now necessary for the complete drainage of ench district to provide an additional six and threequarter miles of six-inch sewer in Onslow, at an estimated cost of £13,500, and in Karori about four miles at an estimated cost of £8000.

The total deficiency under the original loans, therefore, adds up to £36,100.

It is considered probable that the Board of Health will favourably consider the request to be made that it should authorise the raising of the required £26,300, over and above the £9800 which the council may at once raise under the 10 per cent, clause of the governing Act, to enable the work to be completed. If the board sanctions the proposal the council need not place any issue before the ratepayers.