HOSES AND RAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 146, 18 December 1933, Page 11

HOSES AND RAIN

REGULATION STANDS

CHARGES FOR METERS

There was a fair rainfall in the Wainui Valley yesterday and last night and a rather heaviel- fall in the Orongo-l-ongo Valley, but on account of the dry ness of the watersheds the benefit is likely to be transient, and if tlio dry spell sets in again evaporation may in a few days completely discount the one day's rain. Those hopeful people, then, who look to tho City Council to relax the application of its rule against hosing with"out a meter are going to be disappointed. The rule stands. A correspondent who chooses the penname "Concrete Gardener" asks what are the terms on which 'the council installs water meters, seeing that it insists upon their use. His hopes—if he has such hopes— that the council installs water meters free are without foundation. Meters are not installed free. The householder may either purchase his meter outright, he may rent a meter, or he may purchase a meter on hire purchase. The cost of a meter bought outright is £-4 2s Gd, including, the foe for fixing. The- rental charge is one shilling per month, and the householder is required to pay the fixing charge of 126 6d. Under the hire-purchase system the householder pays a fixing fee of 12s 6d and five yearly instalments of 14s. The charge by the meter is Is per thousand gallons in areas served by gravity supply and Is 6d per thousand in elevated districts which draw their water from service reservoirs to which water must bo pumped. The householder is given full credit for the amount of water for which he pays' in his water rates (included in the yearly i'ato demands), and commences to pay when the meter registers consumption above this limit.. The meters are read' at half-yearly intervals and the charges are calculated half-yearly, so that if a householder uses more water during the summer months than half his rate payment entitles him to and less during the wet half of the year, he cannot balance one against tho other, nor can he claim a refund for the water he might have used, but did not, during tlie winter period.