CITY WATER SUPPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19289, 30 March 1926, Page 9

CITY WATER SUPPLY.

Sir,- 1 agree with Mr. W. J. Fletcher ! in thinking Mr. Bush's address at the Rotary Club interesting. I would point out, however, that in 1923 tho city carried a loan of £500,000 for water purposes. In April, .1925, Sir James Gunson stated that 19,000,000 gallons daily could be delivered to the city reservoir on completion of the pipe line to Titirangi. In Mr. Bush's address at the Rotary Club he says that the raising of tho Waitakere dam should be completed by March, 1927. and the available daily supply wou*d then be 10,000,000 gallons, not 14,500,000, as Mr. . Fletcher states. The 14,500,000 gallons are to be available according to Mr. Bush on completion of the Huia dam in 1950. But does Mr. Bush really expect that the enlargement. of the Waitakere dam and the construction of the Huia dam will be finished by the dates he mentions. The difference between the Taupo water scheme and the Waitakere supply is that the former will serve an area with which Waitakere cannot cope. The outer areas all want water. Tho various bays around the harbour all carry considerable summer populations, who want water. The settlements along the Warkato will want to be supplied. It is unnecessary to speak of the quality of the water, while, unlike Waitakere, the greater the" consumption, the smaller the cost. When Mr. Bush has constructed the Huia dam 'he will want further loans to make further dams, and will eventually have spent, according to his own figures, £2,160,000 on what can only be termed speculative data. Mr. Fletcher is aghast at the proposal to spend £2,500,000 oji Taupo, but he should be still more/horrified at the proposal to spend nearly as much on the Waitakeros; a scheme * that must eventually be scrapped if Auckland continues to grow, and which cannot at any time provide for the wants of the * widely-extended area which Taupo will serve in which the majority of the population already live. When the hydro-electric scheme was first mooted there was the same outcry about the cost involved. The Power Board has commitments which, in addition to money already spent, will exceed £2,000,000; and tho board to-day is in a position to show a considerable profit at the end' of the year. It is a misfortune to lack faith in the growth of population and demand, whether it be for water or for electricity. E. H. Potter.