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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4252, 5 November 1874, Page 2

The City Council do not appear to bo in any hurry to go on with the preliminary work necessary to be done before tho great subject of tho drainage and sewerage of Wellington can be considered from a practical point of view. The necessity of a plan of the city being prepared has been admitted again and again ; the Council has gone so far as to call for tenders, the work being apparently beyond the strength of the City Surveyor’s department ; and tenders have been received, but their consideration is one of those matters which it has been found convenient to adjourn. Perhaps in the present state of the Council it is wiser that the subject should be postponed from meeting to meeting until after December, when, it is hoped, so much new spirit, if not new blood, will bo thrown into tho Council that something will be done for the good of the city and its growing population. The desirability of proceeding as early as possible with the survey, to clear the way for works of permanent improvement, is so obvious that it need not bo insisted upon. Its pressing and imperative character is shown by the rapidity with which new buildings are going on in all directions, and the changes that are occurring through improvements in the streets. It is also shown by the valuation just completed, which not merely proves how rapidly Wellington has grown, and indicates the pace at which it is likely to grow, but it also proves that the sooner the Council are placed in a position to consider practical plans of drainage and sewage the better it will be, for if these necessary works are left undone for a few years more, not only will the health of the increasing population suffer, but tho cost of a system of drainage will be largely increased. Tho valuation of the city presents another aspect also in connection with this question, for it shows that the rateable value of property has increased so largely as to place the Council in possession of a revenue enormously greater than it enjoyed only a couple of years ago, and so increased its power to deal with this subject Nothing but the near approach of the election of Mayor by the constituency as a whole, under the special Act passed for tho purpose last session, can justify or excuse the further postponement of this matter, the first step towards which, as we have remarked, is the preparation of an accurate and detailed plan of tho city.

We have no intention of assuming the part of instructor of the Council, in this or any other important matter that may come before them, but we may bo excused for remarking that three tenders have been sent in, and we do not suppose that any jury would find a difficulty in deciding if issues were submitted to them as to those offers. They are widely apart as to the terms on which the tenderers propose to do the work, and in other respects. The Council, we presume, will satisfy themselves as to the limit—neither too high nor too low—which should be placed upon the cost of the survey. It should not be extravagant ; nor, on the other hand, so low that there would be any inducement offered to the contractor to hurry the work, or carry it on with an inferior staff, rather than subject himself to a loss. The Council will also, we have no doubt, satisfy themselves by as careful enquiry as can be made as to the qualifications of the tenderers to carry out a survey and plan so important to the inhabitants, and so indispensable to the future of the city. Having satisfied themselves on these points, we trust that, if tho.matter is not disposed of before the election in December, no time will bo lost afterwards in accepting one or other of the offers now before the Council, or calling for fresh tenders.