CITY WATER POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 11

CITY WATER POLICY.

NO PART IN PROPOSAL. ' * OWN SCHEME SUFFICIENT. ' PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. Tli6 Auckland City Council is taking no part in tho proposal to tap Lake Taupo or other distant sources to augment the city water supply, having held aloof from the present scheme on the ! grounds that its own progressive water policy amply provides for tho needs of Auckland in this respect for the next 15 or 20 years. This matter was the subject of a statement yesterday by the Mayor, Sir James Gunson, who said the council's water policy had been well and carefully thought out with due regard for tho interests of the ratepayers of the city. There was no prospect of this policy being reconsidered or of a halt being called in the present works. Tho council, with a full sense of its obligations, was continuing to develop a full and sufficient supply in the Waitakere Ranges, which would provide an adequate supply 6n' the most economical basis for many years to come. The council was therefore not concerned with any proposals regarding more distant and costly sources of supply for reasons which had already beon set out, and which were fully understood by the ratepayers, and had been endorsed from time to time by them at successive loan polls. That was all the council was concerned with, and was providing for present needs, and tho reasonably forecasted requirements of the future, having regard to the financial outlay involved. As long ago as 1915, said Sir Jamos, the present administration was returned oh the Nihotupu and Huia proposals, and in accordance with the mandate then received and subsequently confirmed had devoted its attention to the development of the scheme. He mentioned that with the new pipe line now in course of construction, the daily delivery to the city reservoirs would bo 19 million gallons, so that within tho next few months that quantity would bo available if and when required, whereas the consumption to-day was eight million gallons daily. That 19 million gallons was capable of further development as the water was in the hills, and would be in tho reservoirs already constructed and yet to be built. The council was quite seized of the desirability of filtering and improving the appearance of tho water, added the Mayor, and the matter was now under consideration. This, with several other questions, was one involving financial outlay which the ratepayers would bo asked to determine.