COX'S CREEK SEWER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14150, 27 August 1909, Page 6

COX'S CREEK SEWER.

AN ALLEGED DEATH-TRAP.

Some serious allegations were made. by a member of the City Council at last night's meeting as to the effect of Cox's Creek sewer upon the health of people living in the neighbourhood. _;/. r-_

The matter arose out of a report .from C the Works Committee upon a petition re- ■ ; ceived at the previous meeting of,,theCouncil from E. A. Watson and 73 others, calling attention to the state of the sewer.: ', The committee recommended that petitioners be informed that plans for ,the extension of this sewer had been prepared ' r for some time past, but that the drain- • age loan was nearly exhausted, and until.*■■■', the Consolidated Loans Bill, which the Council was submitting to Parliament, was passed, no funds would be available for constructing the extension. Also, '.. that ■.'":'. the City Council was waiting to receive from Grey Lynn particulars of the proposed'scheme for improving Cox's Creek. Mr. W. A. Thompson moved that "the clause be referred back to the committee. He declared that this sewer was a death* trap. It received a third of the drainage' of Ponsonby and half the Grey Lynn drainage. If, as stated in the report, the loan fund was almost exhausted, the portion left should be devoted towards Cox's Creek. He would not sit on the Council and allow this state of affairs to > con- %± tinue. Last year seven or eight deaths;occurred in the vicinity that were attributed to the sewer. He had read statements in the papers to the effect that the Works ;: Committee had viewed this " feverbed'; in Ponsonby. Yet nothing was done to remedy it. This thing had been going on for four years, and now another summer was approaching, and the question ..';;. was again to bo hung up. What the Health Department was doing to allow it./; he did not know. " , The Mayor (Mr. C. D. Grey), replying to Mr. Thompson, said the Council generally recognised the facts in connection with this matter; The difficulty had b«n, however, the prorogation of Parliament. Until the Consolidated Loans Bill '!»»' been put through, and the Council could raise its leans, it could do nothing. _ Em- ', thermorc, the Grey Lynn Council,had not yet stated what* it wanted done. . ino work would go on as soon as these formalities were completed. Meantime"" 10 : plans were all ready. *' ' Mr. Thompson: Has not this matter been in hand for some years? , The Mayor : Yes, but the money .has not. . ' . The recommendation of the committee was adopted, no one seconding Mr. Thompson's amendment. <.''