THE DRAINAGE OF THE CITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11191, 13 August 1898, Page 2

THE DRAINAGE OF THE CITY.

; • ■—i— __f±_+ —:—:—_* - -,■ ....'■. iAt -Wednesday night's meeting of the City j Council' the Mayor continued the adjourned i debate on the question of the drainage of the : city by reading the following memorandum: On the 29th June the council resolved that the Town Clerk be instructed to write to'the' Government and the Otago Harbour Board that, the council has taken the drainage of the city'iiito'its' serious consideration; and hopes to l?e able to arrive-at a.definite.conclusion-within,. 'a- month. .'-'.A' month,-and -nearly-,. half -.of -an-.- ---•' other,'-.have..passed, and'as .yet the,council;has. _ taken;no.actioni .'I .therefore,.bring the matter, ■again., before 'the council, and'" express . iny'. opinion that,the council owes it to itself'totake . ~ stepsi'ib redeem 'its .promise; .' When, on-former occßsions, T have urged thatl a vote of the bur-. gesses be taken in order to:make the .Drainage, Act alive,.one. objection.urged,with,some reason ; was .that.' .-a-/ scheme .of ..drainage should, be ■' Mcpted.and,its cost, estimated before seeking; ■ .'■ the ■.-sanction.-, of. the burgesses.', This can oily ' ; be' done "by..Obtaining.-, professional "a;dvice-\in ' ..which the council can place confidence: ' I sUbj mit to the council'that there *s now an oppor- ! tunity- of obtaining advice, on .this point, which !. should 'be taken advantage of. The draini'age of the city of Wellington—a very extensive ; work now on the point of completion—has been Carried out by" Mr Mestayer, a gentleman of high standing in that" department of Engineer-. ing. He.lias been- engaged for five years on the Wellington works, and will, I believe, be there . till .the end of. the year to see that everything i works ■ satisfactorily. It has been suggested to ime by I^r William Ferguson, C.E., engineer of ! tlie AVellington Harbour Board, .and himself | one of the consulting engineers for the Welling-. ton drainage scheme, and who speaks in the ' highest terms of Mr Mestayer's qualifications, that this council would, do well to obtain bis ; advice. I myself called upon Mr Mestayer on •my recent-visit to Wellington, and had a short' I conversation with him, in whioh I gathered .< that he is familiar with all. the modern systems lof drainage, but was wedded to no one in parI ticular, the choice depending entirely on the i circumstances of the plsjce, and that he would ' need to see Dunedin and go over the ground i before-he could give an opinion. I, therefore,' ' strongly recommend to the council that Mr Mes- ! tayer be invited to visit Dunedin, ancl to advise the council as,to the most suitable plan of draining the city. '_ ._- The Mayor said his proposal did not involve anything of an expensive character, but it meant getting a decision from a gentleman of very high position, who was a special drainage engineer;. He. (tha mayor) had spoken to Mr Ferguson, .who., had said; that he had been in daily contact i with Mr Mestayer, wlio was in a position to give the best possible opinion' on the subject,, as he was thoroughly' well' up' in modern- systems of. . drainage and understood everything about'it. Mr Ferguson had said, further, that a better, man could hot. be got. He (the mayor) had told Mr Ferguson be understood that Mr Mestayer was rather wedded to the ocean out: fall scheme, but Mr Ferguson said not; in fact, that the ocean outfall at Wellington was done contrary to,Mr Mestayer's advice, but the Wellington ipeople' insisted upon having that-form of drainage, and Mr Mestayer gave way. As this engineer w.ould only be in New Zealand till, the-end of the year, ho thought it was of importance to invite him to come down' here and advise as to the best system for draining the city.' He (the mayor) did not anticipate that Mr.Mestayer's visit would be an expensive one, and it was an opportunity of getting something that would be a great guidance to them .in the future that should' not be lost. With the leave of the council, he would move that Mr Mestayer be invited to come down ancl inspect Dunedin and give thorn bis; opinion as to the system of drainage most suitable'to the city. Cr Denniston seconded the motion, and thought the opinion iof such a man Would be extremely valuable.' ■'-•-,', Cr Carroll pointed.out that already about £2000 had been spent over the matter, lhey hacl had an engineer .from the other colonies to report on the1 drainage, and the report was lying in the office. He thought the plans they had would never be earned out, because of the continual expense of pump- -" ing. Seeing the matter was of such gr^at importance, he thought they should, agree that this gentleman "should, visit the city and give them his opinion. ' ■-.. - . - , . Cr, Haynes asked if the council seriously contemplated carrying out a system of drainage. ,He did not .think that, the council had any idea of a system being carried but at the present time. Why, then, should they spend £2GO in this way? Thoy had spent about £2000 already, and, as Cr Carroll had pointed out, got opinions and plans, and if they were going to get this gentleman to report on these plans he (Cr Haynes) said it was a waste of. money. The ratepayers were not ready for carrying out this work at present. They, ; might say that they had the expert opinion of this' gentleman from Home, but science was continually advancing, and they did not know what a day might bring forth. Unless they were going on with the work, it was a waste- of money to ask this gentleman to come down. Even if he (Cr Haynes) stood alone he would oppose the motion, unless thoy were ready to go on with some drainage scheme at the present time. If they were not so'prepared, he said wait till tliey were, arid for his own part he believed the time for the work to go forward would not be this century, but next century, when other loans fell in.—(The Mayor: " There will not be many of us here then. ) Cr Haynes aaid that when tho tune he spoke of arrived they could carry out the work without additional burden to the ratepayers. If they were not going on, why on earth were they going to waste this money? He called it wasto of money. Cr Chisholm said Cr Haynes had overlooked one very important feature of the question, and that was that the Government were sending down a gentleman-to-arbitrate

" on the matter of tho sewage flowing into the harbour. If Mr ,Mestayer could suggest a method to prevent the sewage going into tbo harbour he-would bs doing the council an incalculable amount of good. II they got his services it did not follow that the council ■would be put to much expense. The Mayor said he would not have proposed the motion if he had thought it was going to run the city into any great expense. Cr Dawson said that unless they were prepared toigo on with a drainage scheme ho ■did not see any use in getting an expert opinioni '. ' On the motion being put, there voted for it Crs Chisholm, Denniston,. Park, and Carroll, and against it Crs Dawson, Miller, Swan, and Haynes. The Mayor said he thought the step was in the interests of the city, and would give his deliberative,vote in favour of the motion. Cr Dawson: I - enter my protest against this. • ... A Councillor: You can record.your protest in the book set aside" for the purpose.