THE WATER TUNNEL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10686, 4 September 1920, Page 6

THE WATER TUNNEL

The Town-Planning Association has made a against the plan adopted by the City Council for the piercing of the Orongorongo hill in connection with the new water scheme. Now, this protest could have waited very well till the new water, supply had been voted. As it did not wait, it is a fair conclusion that the Town-Plan-ning Association does not want any addition to the water supply of the growing city, threatened badly in the summer months with a water famine. That tho men forming the association have a right to protest against anything in. the. municipal .heaven and earth, no one denies, in a free country. But as an association they havo no right of the kind in matters of de'taiL It is,.,of course, difficult to draw the line, when an association goes into the principles of town-planning, which necessarily embrace a good deal of detail.' It may even b© admitted that in certain of it 6 aspects town-planning is largely a matter of detail. But in this connection it is a matter of largo detail in application of general principles. That, however, can scarcely be said to cover" details of construction. For example, any reference to the details of culverts, water-tables, the mixing of, cement, the making of levels, the run of drainage and the construction of sewers—any reference I to these in the resolution of a Town- | Planning Association goes beyond its i functions. It ignores the rule that 'whatever -suggestions, may be made about a public work, the actual carrying out of the work is the recognised duty of the public authority. A TownPflanning Association is not an association of builders. Its concern i& with "geineral aspects, with the laying out of streets, with the provision of parks, wifth the general principles on, wliich the- sanitation, the; beauty, and tho convenience of a city depend. To go into'.tho matter of individual contracts is clearly quite as far beyond their priviLsger?. as to wrangle over the building of culverts and brick walls. Moreover, criticism, in what we must call the forbidden area of criticism, ought, if permitted, to be valuable. But the association's- criticism in this case is not valuable, because it is merely destructive. In a matter of extreme difficulty, and guided by the experience of the day, tho City Council has adopted tho only plan which offers guarantees lor tho rapid fulfilment of a most important contract; a contract the failure of which would involve serious disaster. It is not enough for a critic to say it shall not be done. It io for any critic, who wishes to be helpfully useful to show how it can be done. At a time when barren principles have' failed badly, we cannot permit the more statement of a barren principle to stop a vitally necessary work. This interference of tho townplanners being, as we have shown, quite beyond their functions 36 general town-planners, and being, as'we have aleo shown, merely destructive; and without any protence of usefully constructive suggestion, must bo ignored by, the council and by the ratepayers. A thing that deserves only silent contempt cannot he allowed to jeopardise a groat public work of vital importance.