Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1900. THE WATER CLOSET SYSTEM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11561, 14 June 1900, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1900. THE WATER CLOSET SYSTEM.

nectioiie, in putting" in each/ closed Anjd a charge of £l * y ear for' wate.r for flushing. But it is per|eotly.'well known to those behind the scenes, including some or thotie most prominent in opposing the reform, that two important modifications have been discussed in committee, and will be brought forward and unquestionably carried when the matter is before the Council. One is the spreading of the first cost of closets and connections over a period of twelve months or more, at a charge of 5 per cent for interest. This is already done in the case of compulsory drain connections, and has been found to work well. The other is a modification in the charge for water for flushing, either in the direction of reducing it materially, or doing away with it altogether, and simply charging for »11 water used as shown by meter. The latter course, we understand, is favored by a majority of the Council, and we believe it would be found the' most satisfactory. Then, in the case of a house valued at £40 a year no charge whatever would be made for closets unless the total consumption of water exceeded 16,000 gallons, and in a house valued at £80 no extra charge would be made until 32,000 gallons had been used. At Or.Tr ■nnln i~ i-1 1. -

At _ any rate, in the very large majority of private houses, even if all the water used for flushing were charged for. the annual cost would be merely nominal It is no good "kicking against the pricks." It is but a question of time when our present primitive, objectionable, and insanitary pan system must be done away with The public health, even common decency, demand it. Houseowners may lay this to heart, and instead of trying to delay reform, and probably getting worse terms in the end, they would be wiser to meet the apostles of reform and take advantage of their present disposition to so adapt the bye-laws as to make the burden as light as possible. In other towns harder terms are imposed, but there the advantages of the water-closet system

are now so well understood that no man would dream of putting up a residence without such a convenience, even if compulsion were removed. He would do it for his own comfort if he intended the house for himself, and if he intended to let it he would know that the absence of such provision would tell against him getting satisfactory tenants. The days ore gone by when the " what was good enough for lny grandfather is good enough for me " argument can successfully stem sanitary reforms. In IJapier we have spent a very large sum in our drainage system, with marked results on the health of the town, as the statistics of disease prove. But as yet we are reaping only part of the possible benefit, and the substitution of a universal water-closet system in place of that we have perforce put up with for so long will fill the measure of that benefit.

At the next meeting of the Borough Council the question of making the

adoption of water cloßets compulsory within a certain distance of a sewer will be discussed. It would, in fact, have come up at the last meeting of the Council had it not been for the late hour when that item of business on the order paper was reached. Already in certain quarters, where opposition to reform of any kind is generally found, an outcry is being raised againßt the proposal, on the ground of the initial expense and the subsequent cost of water for flushing. But we believe that a large amount of support which theße cavillers have enlisted on their side is based on material misunderstanding as to what the intentions of the Council are. There is a very good excuse for them, but there is none for those who, knowing those intentions, deliberately misrepresent them. The present bye-law relating to waterclosets is simply a copy of that of another borough, and while connec-

tions have been permissive, not compulßory, has worked well enough This is proved by the fact that already some 150 closets have been put in, and we venture to say that no other expenditure of the same amount on a house could have given a tenth of the satisfaction experienced by those who have anticipated a compulsory law. The charge made under the bye-law is nominally £1 a year for each closet, but that allows a large quantity of water to be used for garden and other purposes. Let us take the ease of a modest residence rated at £40 a year. The ordinary water rate is 2? per cent on the valuation, and the charge would therefore be£L. This would entitle the occupier to use 16,000 gallons of water at the rate of 1« 3d per 1000

gallons, but in veiy many households that is not sufficient for ti& purposes, and the excess has to he paid for. But the charge of £1 for a closet covers another 16,000 gallons, and as the flushing would probably not absorb 5000 the balance would be available for baths, watering gardens^ or other purposes. A mere extension of the existing bye Jaw would undoubtedly involve in an expenditure, of *5 to £7, according to cost of cos-