Correspondence. WATER AND DRAINAGE. TO THE EDITOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXVX, Issue 5087, 13 January 1900, Page 4

Correspondence. WATER AND DRAINAGE. TO THE EDITOR.

j Sib,— The Water and Drainage Com. ! mittee of the Hawera Borough Council i having recommended the council to take ' power under the Public Works Act to lay the water pipes across the land of Mr Oughton, at Okaiawa, as that gentleman had refused the offer made to him by the oounoil, it is to be assumed that that course will be adopted. It is also to be assumed that the offer made by the oounoil was fair and reasonable, or the oommittee would hardly break off negotiations in snch an abrupt manner. I should have thought that a little mutual give and take on either side would have easily settled the matter, but the oommittee ar« not built that way. They say, Here is our offer ; take it, or we will bring the Act in force, and oompel you. Now, Sir, what is the offer that the council think is the utmost limit to which they can go in justice to the ratepayers? It is a jet of water or £10 in cash. Mr Oughton's land is watered naturally, so the water is not wanted, and as the council think £10 is a fair equivalent, let us see what Mr Oughton is expected to do for that amount of money. First, he will have to g«t the service of his legal adviser, and if after paying his bill of costs he has £7 left he will be luofcy. He has praotically to give up a large shoe of his farm for an indefinite period to an army of workmen ; he has to allow about forty chains of a trench to be cut aoross his grass lands, with the usual result that for two or three years there will be a luxuriant crop of thistles ; he has to give the council the right of ingress and egress to tbe land for all time ; he if» also bound to feel that for a certain distance on each side of the line of pipes he cannot do as he likes with his own land ; he also knowß full well that if he should decide to cut np the land into suburban sections at some future time the price per aore will be prejudicially affected, especially as the pipes run aoross the land diagonally. If the Borough Council think that £7 is fair compensation, I am strongly of opinion that when they take the case into Court they will have a rude awakening, as most people will think that instead of compensation a more suitable name would be Spoliation.