POLITICAL INFLUENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13708, 26 March 1908, Page 8

POLITICAL INFLUENCE.

SYDNEY DRAINAGE QUESTION. The name of Mr. T. W. Keele; a. prominent Sydney citizen, has been very much in the public mind during the past fortnight (writes our Sydney correspondent). Mr. Keele, who is an engineer of high repute, has been president for years of the Water and Sewerage Board, the .body'charged with the extensive duty of looking after the water supply of Sydney and its suburbs, and the drainage of that vast area. It was suddenly announced the other day that Mr. Keele was to be removed by the \ Government/ from this position, where he had been eminently useful, and appointed to the Sydney Harbour Trust, where he is likely to have comparatively little to do and plenty of time in which to do it. Hence there has been much public comment. The affair provoked such a. hubbub, indeed, that it came up in Parliament on a no-confidence motion—a piece of unwise generalship, since a vote was thus forced upon the question upon strict party linesand the Government won by 16 votes. A vote under such circumstances, of course, never convinces the public ; and it is no secret',-that for some time past Mr. Keele has not been, a persona grata with the Public Works Department, especially since he adopted an attitude of strenuous hostility towards the' Illawarra suburbs sewerage proposals. It is intended to construct an extensive sewer to drain the Illawarra suburbs, the outfall being taken to the coast near -liondi, and the scheme of the Department provides that the work shall be. done by gravitation. Mr. Keele, contending "that tin's is wrong, recommends an alternative scheme of pumping and gravitation, maintaining that if the plan of the Department is followed, the sewer, by reason of the pressure of ocean water, will become "an elongated cesspool." This alarming prediction will no doubt receive its due weight from the Parliamentary Public Works Committee, the body which is now investigating the whole scheme. The fight made by Mr. Keele to prevent the construction of the hospital proposed to be built for consumptives at Waterfall, near the catchment area of the Woronora auxiliary water scheme, lias also gained him enmity in certain quarters. Now he goes to tho Harbour Trust, where he will have nothing more to do with engineering schemes of tins character, and Mr. W. .], Millner, an engineer with a. long record of service in the Public Works Depart mentlatterly m district engineer at Newcastle, where- he has organised an extensive sewerage system—succeeds him as president of the Water and Sewerage Board. ! |