DRAINAGE RIGHTS.

Northern Advocate, 25 July 1923, Page 4

DRAINAGE RIGHTS.

IMPORTANT DECISIONS FOliE-

CASTED,

RBUAKDING BUILDING SITB-

DIVISIONS,

Writing to the Whangarei Borough Couneil on Monday evening in connection with the dedication of North Street, Messrs Rishworth and Harrison pointed out that no mention was made ■of. - drainage - rights.. The Council was -advised that Mr R. S. Finch,,on account of Mr James North,; applied for approval of a plan of lots 1 and 2. lying between the south-eastern end of North Street and the creek, and that it had been pointed out by the engineer that tho Council would require drainage rights accordingly prepared and hid executed the transfer from Mr North to the Council granting'the required right. It was stated that the operative words in the transfer were to the following effect. —

The transferor undertook to transfer and grant to the Council for ever full arid free right and liberty of passage and running of surface or storm water from North Street over, along and through tho said lots, numbers 1 and 2, One of these lots had been sold and a permit had been granted for the erection of a-dwelling, which had been partially erected in concrete, but oporntions were, at a standstill pending the approval of the above mentioned plan. They undertook to register their trens-, fer of drainage rights in due course unl would be pleased if the approval of the plan could be expedited.

As a legal opinion relative to drainage had been received, the matter was considered in conjunction with the advice, and a lengthy argument ensued. Finally Cr. J. E. Holmes moved, seconded by Cr. L. .T. Brake, that further discussion be deferred until the midAugust meeting, when the whole subject could be dealt with by the full Council in committee. On that occasion Cr. Holmes hoped to hear a sound policy put forward by the Mayor, on what, he termed a very important matter. Cr. Brainsby moved an amendment which he withdrew after the engineer, Mr J. Darlington-Whitmore, had spoken of the insistence by previous councils upon securing drainage rights aif} had given a word of warning as to the necessity of not creating bad precedents. Following upon the decision .to 1 consider the whole subject in camera a fortnight hence, Cr. E. G. W. TibLits moved that consideration of the letter in connection with the dedicati'j'i of North's Eoad be a-lso held over, but Cr. L. J. Brake moved as an amendment, seconded by Cr. A. D. Jack, that the plans be approved provided the ap-1 plicants put in storin water pipes to ] the creek, to the satisfaction of the j

engineer. Cr. J. E. Holmes said that that was exactly what the Council wanted, and the amendment was earned. A letter had also been received from Mr Finch, on behalf of Mr D. W. Jack, re plans and specifications of road formation at Kensington. It was intended to proceed at once with the whole scheme instead of doing one road only as originally proposed. The reserve would be shown on the subdivisional plan to be submitted later and drainage rights would be reserved to the Council where necessary and included in the deed of dedication of reads. Following upon the previous decision Cr. A. D. Jack moved tha.t the above letter be similarly dealt with, provided the piping was done to the satisfaction of the engineer. That was agreed upon." On behalf of Cr. J. E. Holmes, Mr Finch forwarded a plan of another subdivision. of a property recently bought from Mr Downs, and it was similarly dealt with on the understanding that it was clear that the storm watfjr drainage had to be put in by the owner to the satisfaction of the engineer.