WATER SUPPLY TO THE NAPIER HILL RESIDENTS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10057, 26 July 1895, Page 4

WATER SUPPLY TO THE NAPIER HILL RESIDENTS.

Sir,— No town in New Zealand has a better water supply than Napier, nnd there is no town that can have its supply Increased at any time ab so small a cost. From the artesian wells under tho control of the Boronuh Conncil there is n daily (low of more than 1,500.000 gallons, or abonb 150 gallons per head for each mon, woman, and child within the borough boundaries. An expenditure of £100 will increaee tho daily supply to every person by more bhan 30 gallons, so that as fir as tho supply of water is c :ncerned the borough authorities, for uunitary purposes alone, ought to encourage the generous nse of water. The 1,500 000 gallons of water to which I have referred is supplied daily, and this quantity of water is used somewhere ond by somebody, and as tho borongh authorities nre fixing metres and ate making definite charges for water, I am anxlon.i to find oat the amount of income do- [ rived from this new mode of taxing rate- ! payers. A few days <)go I was at the ! borough cilices plying my rates, and to my astonishment I learnt that mv special water Tate was £1 lls, and for this amount I am permitted to use a quantity of water estimated at the rate of fifteen pence per 1000 gallons. This represent!* a dally allowance of 5J gallons for each person in my house, ai:d ahonU the quantity be exceeded a special chargo is made of fifteen pence for each udditloaal 1000 gallons. Assuming the population in Napier ti bo 10,000, a diily eupply of 55,000 gallons would be snfficlent at the same rate of allowance as is now made to me by the bo'oupb. This quantity could bs provided by ft sioglo artesian well, and yet nine wells nre flowing, and the million and a half gallons of water mo consumed day by day. If I am to ba charge for every bracket of water used beyond a daily ] allowance of 5J gallons, Rurely the same rnle mn?t operate for all Nnpier residents, and, if such is the ca ; e, what becomes of the income derived from water rates ? Mr Hodgson told me thab the water rates do not provide for the cost of pumping, &c, bub Burely this la an error. There should be an annual incoina to tho borongh for the use of water in excess of the daily allowsnce permitted by Councillors of something like £34,000 per annum 1 Now, I have no wish to murmur at the work done by the borough authorities, b-it It seems tn me that the hill residents are being treitcd vgry unfilrly in the matter of water supply, and certainly the method adopted in estimating tho quantity for paeh hon=e is a very absurd one, It is not a bnildiug, but the number of persons in It that should form the basis of supply, an! co much per head should bs allowed for each individual irrespeceive of Tateabie value and such nonsensical plans. For if rateable value is to be taken, then the hill residents must insist upon a much larger expenditure upon roade, &c. Tho question is one of much itnportacca. Ib is impossible to supposo that the people on the hills will be satisfied with a bare 5J gallons of water daily when there are 150 gallons available. And now thab attention his been called to the nutter, I hope the authorities will do something to smend this anomalous state of affiire. — I am, &s , H. II ill. July 24, 1895.