THE WATER, CLOSET SYSTEM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11580, 5 July 1900, Page 2

THE WATER, CLOSET SYSTEM.

We are not usually in sympathy with socialistic legislation, but a few more instances such as a clique of property owners on the Napier Borough Council afforded last night would make us take a very decided step towards the Democratic camp. Someone once declared that it is always the unexpected which happens, and our Borough Council has of late afforded Beverul instances of this, including the practical rejection of Mr Coleman's generous offer to provide ub with public baths on a central site. Last night another surprise was sprung. For monthß past the Counoil has had under consideration the compulsory extension of the water closet system to houses within a certain distance of a public sewer, to bring Napier into line with other towns of similar importance. That the proposal would be carried was taken for granted, but last night Cr. Cohen succeeded in carrying a resolution deferring it for six months — which means shelving it until the ratepayers have an opportunity of turning out the present opponents of progress and eleoting men who are not a hundred years behind the times in ideas in sanitation. A great deal wa3 made by the opponents of the hardship to poor people in having to pay for the new closets. But poor people do not usually own their houses ; the o~nera are thoße who wear broadcloth and fine linen, and according to Cr. Edwards a number of the houses condemned by the Health Officer, Drde Lisle, as insanitary, are owned by Councillors who voted against the new bye-law. As to the hardship, it was intended, as every councillor knew, to spread the payments over a period of one or two years, as is now done in the case of drainage connections, and the Counoil had full power to abolish the proposed charge of .21 per annum for water for the closets. As against that the sums formerly charged to occupiers for nightsoil and rubbish removal, averaging considerably over =C la year, have been done away with, so there would have been no hardship at all in the obarge of £1 a year for water. But, as we have said, that was a matter entirely in the hands of the Counoil. The extension of the sewer outfall wa3 another bogey trotted out. That will have to be taken in hand shortly under any circumstances, and Mr Napier Bell, the designer of the drainage system, has reported that with a slight extension of the outfall our drains are capable of dealing with the excreta of a city twice the size of Napier. Yet. another bogey— the inadequacy of the water Bupply— received its coupe dc grace at the hands of Cr. M'Vay. In fact all the argument was on one- side, though a majority of tho voteß went in the other direction. Is Napier never to make any progress ?