SUPPLY FOR NORTH SHORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18762, 16 July 1924, Page 11

SUPPLY FOR NORTH SHORE.

LAKE TAKAPUNA CONTROL.

NEW BOARD PROJECTED.

One of the pressing needs of the North Shore boroughs is an adequate water supply. A special effort is being made to secure legislative authority for dealing with the problem in a comprehensive manner.

A local bill has been drafted and presently will be introduced into Parliament, providing for the necessary statutory machinery. The object of the bill is to constitute a North Shore Boroughs Water Board for the purpose of providing for the supply of water for Birkenhead, Devonport, Northcote and Takapnna. Another object is to remove existing anomalies In respect of controlling the present supply from Lake Takapuna, which is inadequate for the increasing needs of the progressive North Shore.

There Is at present the Lake Takapuna Board of Control, consisting of representatives from the North Shore boroughs. Its function is to conserve the water supply of the lake, and it is empowered to spend up to £20,000 in improving it. But the subsidiary powers of the present board are wholly inadequate to the performance of its functions. To begin with, the board is not a body corporate. On the top of that, while the board is given power to levy £20,000 on the boroughs, the boroughs have no power to borrow the money for the purposes of the board. In any case, the Lake Takapuna supply is admittedly inadequate, and even an expenditure of £20,000 would not meet the near future needs of the North Shore borough. These and other anomalies will be removed if the local bill becomes law.

The bill contains 12 clauses, mostly providing machinery for the establishment of a water board with power to rate over the four boroughs for the purpose of acquiring land, constructing new works for augmenting, maintaining find,improving the supply in Lake Takapuna. In short, the bill is to equip the proposed water board with full power to provide an adequate water supply for the North Shore.

Schemes for an augmented supply have been discussed and promulgated, but there is apparently as yet no definite scheme determined. The local bill represents the necessary machinery for prospective enterprise. STJPPOET I3J THE SUBURBS. NORTHCOTE AND MOUNT ROSKILL. The Northcote Borough Council last evening decided to inform the medical officer of health, Dr. T. J. Hughes, that it favourably regards the proposal for a Metropolitan Water Board. The Mount Roskill Road Board also aJErmed the desirability. of such a board.