THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1932. DEALING WITH DRAINAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21133, 16 March 1932, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1932. DEALING WITH DRAINAGE.

As sanitation is a service essential to the welfare of the community and adequate drainage facilities are a vitally important element in such a service, the proposals of the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board's engineer, Mr. H. H. Watkins, have great interest. The time is not opportune for embarking on any project involving great cost, but there is need to ponder without delay the details of a scheme of considerable magnitude, with a view to expediting its administrative preparation and directing any urgent work in accordance with a comprehensive plan, accepted now for execution as financial opportunity offers. In the light of Mr. Watkins' very valuable report, the outcome of his investigations abroad under instructions from the board, it is possible to appreciate the need for an improved method of sewage disposal and the steps to be taken in order to accomplish what would be of benefit to the whole metropolitan area. A good deal has been done, yet an ever-increasing demand for additional drainage facilities cannot be ignored ; in the opinion of Mr. Watkins, constant vigilance is needed, and the present requirements of many suburban areas constitute an immediate problem. There has been an increase in the number of sewer outfalls discharging into harbour waters, and while public health may not have been injuriaffected by the effluent from any one of them there has been complaint of nuisance. The Orakci outfafl has been a subject of such complaint, circumstantially supported, and the risk of beach contamination has been authoritatively admitted ; unpleasantness, if not unwholesomeness, has been experienced. From some of the boroughs across the harbour crude sewage has been discharged, in one instance continuously, that is, without re spect to tide. To plan for something better is imperative. A regional scheme, providing for the whole metropolitan area and dealing also with trade wastes, as at Westfield, and storm-water, in various places, is obviously desirable. This will involve an extension of the existing Drainage Board, at present comprising th.e greater part of the City of Auckland and five suburban ai-eas, to include the rest of the metropolitan district. At present, fourteen local authorities exercise statutory control of sewerage systems already installed. To continue indefinitely this piecemeal control would be prejudicial to both efficiency and economy. The physical features of the isthmus dictate a unification of policy. In a report presented to the Drainage Board in 1929 a committee of inquiry appointed by the Health Department strongly recommended the coordination of the various local bodies and the trade interests of the whole region, as well as the schemes of drainage in operation. It urged that what had been done in the area on the slopes of the southern shore of the Waitemata Harbour, by the creation of the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board, was required also on the Manukau side, and added: "Portion of the Manukau slopes can no doubt be drained to the Waitemata and there may be areas in the districts primarily on the Waitemata slopes which can best be drained into the Manukau." It therefore declared against the setting up of a separate board for the Manukau, necessitating separate offices and staffs and duplicating administration efforts and costs, and recommended what Mr. Watkins now proposes. The problem is really one, not many; and a realisation of this has led Birkenhead, at present without a sewerage system, to defer decision on its contemplated system until a future policy for the metropolitan district has been determined. Mr. Watkins suggests a southern area and a northern area, with separate schemes, operated under one board, progressively co-ordinating existing systems and planning new ones in accordance with the comprehensive treatment projected. On the engineering side, his recommendations envisage the very desirable displacement of the Orakci outfall by one well away from the city. He gives reasons 4 for nominating Motukorea (BrovVs Island) as the eventual location of the new outfall for the southern area, and supports his choice with the results of an investigation of tidal directions and velocities in that locality. The investigation has been limited in scope, yet the recorded findings are held by him I" indicate that " the proposed dispersion area is particularly suitable for the discharge of a clarified sewage effluent throughout the (i<!;il

cycle." As that portion of the xul f is a popular waterway, broken by islands likely to bo increasingly frequented, there should lie absolute assurance of satisfactory conditions before the project, is definitely sanctioned. Mr. Watkins condemns," on the score of excessive cost, an outfall into the Tasman Sea at the Mantikau Heads; this he deems " impracticable for many years to come." The shallow waters of the Manukau preclude the proper dispersion of any considerable volume of sewage effluent there. For the northern area —the boroughs of the North Shore-—there is proposed an outfall near banopara Point, well beyond the narrow portion of Rangi--1010 Channel. There again, however, fully confirmatory investigation of tidal conditions is desirable. For both areas, the completed schemes are in the future. In the meantime, instalments of constructional work are recommended, as financial circumstances permit, in order to minimise existing defects. These, as well as the comprehensive scheme, are commendable as thoughtful contributions to needed improvement.

RATING AND ECONOMY. In the abnormal economic circumstances the payment to date of over 84 per cent, of the current year's city rates', with a reduction of arrears by over £38,000, must be regarded as satisfactory and evidence of the general stability of Auckland, notwithstanding the fact that totals in both instances fall short of the estimate. The 10 per ccnl;. penalty is a strong incentive for prompt payment, but so also is the civic spirit of the people, who as a whole discharge their public obligations as a duty of first importance It is to be noted that properties which arc subject to State Advances loom large in the arrears account, which is a reminder of the far-reaching consequences of' State lending with too prodigal a hand. The greater the stake of an individual in his property the less risk there is of non-payment of local taxes. Unfortunately, too many . State Advances loans were made to people who could pay little toward the'cost of the house to be erected, and it is clear that the aggregate losses to the department will he heavy. The Mayor states that this year's economics amount to over £30,000, a substantial portion of which must represent reductions in wages and salaries. , The figure would have seemed impressive six months ago, but not so now, and the question that is now exercising the public mind is what further economies may be effected. The times do not admit of cessation in the process of reducing expenditure and with national taxation rising on a falling income it is doubly necessary that local taxation should be eased. The situation to-day is not whr.fc the city wants, but what it caa afford. Further economies must be faced.