THE NIHOTUPU SITUATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17700, 8 February 1921, Page 4

THE NIHOTUPU SITUATION.

The original contractors having abandoned their undertaking, the City Council has no alternative but to entrust its own engineering staff with the responsibility of completing the impounding dam at'Nibotupu. The circumstances that have led to this position have other unfortunate consequences than the immediate difficulty of this reorganisation, not the least of -which is the great increase in the cost of the work. Apart from the first scheme, subsequently abandoned, the has been successively expanded from £120,000 in 1915 to £160,000 a year ago, and now Mr. Gunson say's the final cost will be £190,000. To the latter figure presumably must be added the cost of the auxiliary dam, estimated in 1919 at £11,200, and necessary only because of the delay in the main enterprise. Toward this total of over £200,000, only £73,800 of loan money is available, the council's policy being to supply more than three-fifths of the cost from the profits of the water-supply account. But there is another aspect of the matter upon which more information might be afforded. How long will it be before the main works are completed and the city assured against the annual recurrence of inadequate supplies? Certainly, citizens have Mr. Baildon's expression of hope that the dam will be finished in 1923, which means that in three years, on the Mayor's figures, the council will spend twice as much as it has paid in five years to its contractors. But at such a critical stage of an undertaking essential to the health and welfare of the city, an authoritative report from the responsible executive officer ought to ' have been furnished and made avail--1 able to the public. The Nihotupu contract was let in August, 1915, to be completed in three years. Nearly ' double that term has been taken to construct the foundations and lay 1 two-sevenths of the main walls. ' What guarantee is there that the estimate of three years to complete the work is not merely an optimistic | speculation? The history of, the ; auxiliary dam does not inspire much confidence in such calculations. It ! was undertaken at the end of 1919 ' upon the understanding that it ■ would be finished during that summer to meet the extra consumption in the dry weather this year. That work has not been finished yet, J though the need for augmenting the : conservation system is obvious from ; the appeal of Mount Albert for as- : sistance and the decision of the 1 City Council to enforce restrictions ' upon consumption.