THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1907. THE DRAINAGE SCHEME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13832, 20 February 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1907. THE DRAINAGE SCHEME.

The ratepayers who may have been considerably exercised in mind over the prospects of heavy rating through the adoption of Mr C'ar-dew's proposals for the completion of the drainage scheme will halve been somewhat reassured by the perusal of the interview with Mr Small, contained in ouv impression of yesterday morning. Mr Small, it is true, holds out very little hope that a substantial increase in tho drainage rate will not be necessary next year. It may be inferred from what he says that, in his opinion, a rate of Is in the pound of the rateable value of property in tho sewered area and of 6d in the pound in the unsewered area will have to be levied in the near future. The interest charge which must be met and the working expenses which must be provided for will, he points out, amount next year to £15,600, and rates of Is and Gd in the pound respectively would, on present assessments, yield little more than £2000 over that sum. But—and this is the material point—he does not anticipate that it will be necessary for the Board to seek authority to increase its rates further than this if the works recommended by Mr Cardew which are absolutely necessary are undertaken in such a way as to ensure what he describes as a regular progression. In other words, he relies upon the steady conversion of unsewered area into sewered area, and upon the consequent expansion of the revenue of tho Board, to place it in possession of the funds that will enable it to meet tho annual charges. If so, a rate of Is on the sewered and of Gd on the unsewered area, will suffice to meet the requirements of the Board, even when it is faced with the necessity to incur an expenditure very largely in excess of the amount which the public was at one time led to suppose would cover the cost of a drainage system. But it will be observed that Mr Small thinks that the work of remodelling the city sewerage, recommended by Mr Cardew at an estimated cost of £08,215, may be left undone without detriment to the main features of the sewerage scheme. In his report Mr Cardew laid stress upon the desirability of constructing new sewers ■in the city, so as to intercept the house connections, and of leaving the old sewers to serve the sole purpose of carrying off the storm waters. His objection to the system that at present obtains, under which' the old Corporation sewers perforin the double duty of carrying off the sownge and storm water, is that in certain conditions there, must be a discharge of sewage into the harbour and that in any case the sewers in question are, for various reasons, not well adapted to carry tiewage, tho effect being that deposition occurs and that the generation of noxious gases is set up to tho prejudice of the health qf the people. The grounds upon which Mr Cardew advocates the remodelling of the city sewerage cannot be dismissed as fantastic or trivial. It may be, however, that means may be devised whereby, at small cost, the more objectionable features of the present system may be remedied in the meantime, and that, in consquence, the Drainage Board may be enabled, as Mr Small suggests, to make the remodelling of the city sewerage "tho last item of expenditure instead of one of the first." In such an event it may be presumed that an arrangement of some permanence will have to bo arrived at with the Harbour Board under which the discharge of a certain quantity of sewage into the h;v/Goiir in time of heavy rainfall may be sanctioned by that authority. It will certainly be 'the desire of all ratepayers that the prosecution of the scheme may he so ordered that, consistently with due regard for the necessity of eliminating insanitary conditions, the burden of expense may be made as little irksome as possible.