LOCAL BODIES' POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20519, 21 March 1930, Page 15

LOCAL BODIES' POLICY.

LARGER DRAINAGE AREA.

RECENT INVESTIGATIONS.

A POSSIBLE COMMISSION. ' The local authorities in Auckland have frequently considered the drainage question in recent years. The Drainage Board obtained a comprehensive report on the whole position from its engineer in 1922, and decided that there was no immediate need of a change of policy. Early iD 1926 the Harbour Board directed its engineer and harbourmaster to report on the discharge of sewage into the harbour. After 18 months' observations, the two officers recommended that the Drainage Board should be asked to install a treatment plant at Orakei. Their report was circulated confidentially among all the local bodies concerned.

About March, 1928, at the request of the Minister of Health, Dr. H. Chesson, medical officer of health, and Mr. L. B. Campbell, district Public Works engineer, conducted an inquiry into the whole question of the drainage of Greater Auckland, including the North Shore districts. In tho following September, the Drainage Board called a conference of local bodies' representatives to consider the trouble at Ellerslie, and whether the board's district should bo extended' to include the Manukau watershed, or whether a separate board for that area was preferable. The meeting resolved that the board's engineer should prepare an estimate of .the cost of extending the district and providing main drainage. The Onehunga representatives dissented.

Important Recommendations. In February of last year Dr. Hughes, reporting to the Drainage Board on the tests of harbour water, expressed the opinion that one board for the whole isthmus was desirable. The engineer, Mr. Wat kins,, favoured a comprehensive investigation before any expensive alterations were made at Orakei, hut suggested that the sewage might bo passed through finer screens.

A few days later the report of Dr. Chesson and Mr. Campbell was made public. It recommended the extension of the Auckland drainage district to the Manukau, and the setting-up of a drainage board for the North Shore districts. It also recommended that Mr. Watkins should be sent on an extensive tour of investigation abroad, in order that he might be in a position to design arid carry out a scheme of drainage for the enlarged district, and act as consulting engineer to the proposed North Shore Board. The Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, endorsed the proposals regarding the scope of the two districts, adding that possibly a commission might be set up to go into the matter and coercive powers migiit be used to give effect to its recommendations.

Report of Engineer. In May the Drainage Board sent Mr. Watkins on his tour, and about July screens of £in. mesh were installed at Orakei in place of the jin. screens previously used. The results were considered very satisfactory up to a certain point. Practically all drainage works deemed to affect future policy, at North Shore as well as on the Auckland isthmus, have been suspended until Mr. Watkins' return. It is to be expected that he will prepare a comprehensive report upon the drainage of the Waitemata and Manukau watersheds, and that the "political" aspect of the matter will then be dealt with—possibly by the commission referred to by the Minister of Health. Whatever is done, a very large expenditure will be involved.