WELLINGTON'S DAILY WASH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14240, 10 December 1909, Page 8

WELLINGTON'S DAILY WASH.

THE GURGLE OF THE TAP.

A correspondent writes to the New Zealand Times as follows concerning Wellington's water supply:—Every summer when the sun shines daily for a week or so a large number of Wellington ratepayers are robbed of water supply for a portion of each day. The City Council a year or two ago was sorry for these denizens of tho high level desert and increased the supply. It is of course impossible that all citizens who pay the same rates shall have the same advantages, and these advantages depend entirely on progress there are inconsistencies in the treatment of Wellington folk that may be noted. For instance, the highlevel man is as much entitled to his morning tub as is the man a hundred feet below him. He turns his tap on in the morning and there is nothing but a gurgle. The high-level woman wishes to wash the family clothes on Monday morning. She is absolutely unable to wash clothes with a gurgle. The high-level man having washed himself at the hot-water tap goes to work. When he gets a little lower down the probability is that he will notice numerous taps running full bore. In the evenings when he returns to his home he is still unable to have a wash in cold water, but he will notice on the low levels that the pampered citizen with a garden is allowing his outdoor tap to run even to the point of filling the street water table. Every now and then the City Council passes a resolution that water is not to be used for gardens, but the majority of citizens take no notice of resolutions, and as far as the City Council is concerned it seems to, be quite satisfied that a resolution stops waste of water. In the ; meantime, however, the families who have no water for a greater part of the day cannot quite understand the attitude of, the city fathers. There is enough water wasted in the low levels of Wellington during the prohibited hours to supply the high-level people.with drinks and washing water. If low-level citizens paid higher rates or rents of • were better citizens one might understand. The "time has arrived when something better than a gurgle is required in a high-level tap.