ST. KILDA WATER SUPPLY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18764, 18 January 1923, Page 9

ST. KILDA WATER SUPPLY

RESPONSIBILITY ON LOCAL VBOHIOUGH. DISCUSSION IN CITY COUNCIL. At the meeting of the City Council last : night _Cr. Begg (chairman of the Water Committee) reterred to the complaints .from residents of St. Kilda regarding the inadequacy of tlio water supply. He said,,../ that since the deputation had waited on the St. Kilda Council a number of rate- ■ payers had placed their grievance before.,-, .5 him.. There could be no doubt that their , .•’ complaint was not without cause. The whole trouble was that the only main supplying South Dunedin and St. Kilda was (bo six-inch pipe running through King Edward road. After South Dunedin drew . from this there was not much left for . St. Kilda. The remedy was the installs-. •»- lion -of an additional main tapping’the big main coming in along the South road. ■ There were, people in St. Kilda, who, with - sometimes nothing but air in their water.. ; , pipes, were in. the tantalising position of-"’ . ’ seeing their neighbours nearer the main using a good water supply to the full. If the council acceded to tne request of those ' unfortunate people and allowed them to tap the Forbury road main the .people resident nearer St. Clair would be affected very detrimentally. They would be in , practically the same position as the St. Kilda residents were to-day. Another suggestion was that the Anderson’s Bay main .should be tapped. The St. Kilda people had sold their birthright when they sold the main to the Anderson’s Bay r\oa\L , Board. That main was now the connect- ■/ mg main for the higher levels of the Bay, and, if it were tapped to supply St. Kilda, .... there would be nothing left to supply the . hill district. A six-inch main running via Burns and Surrey streets was the remedy ' that St. Kilda should consider. Other dis- , tricts had moved for themselves in order to ensure, adequate water supplies, and they \ had been rewarded. It had to be remembered that St. Kilda was being supplied by the same main as in 1900, although from that year to 1921 the annual consumption., of the borough had increased from' , 9,000,000 to 90,000,000 gallons. Cr Begg. went on to quote figures showing the fluctuations of the St. Kiida pressure .on Monday mornings—running from KKHb at 6 a.m. to 101 bat 10 o’clock. Cr Begg concluded with a , reference to the hint conveyed by the Mayor of St Kilda that the city council had something “up its sleeve” in regard to the water supply. Cr uegg would be very pleased to receive any assist- . mice or enlightenment that the Maybr of St. Kilda oould give him. Cr Hayward suggested that the chairman, of the committee should .get the city engineer to subunit a report covering the whole position. , ' The Mayor: We are quite satisfied. Cr Wilson said that the whole tiling was “stale. When deputations had waited V upon the council in the past the position had been investigated and the remedy indicated to the St. Kilda Council.