THE MAYOR ON WATER SUPPLY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5700, 21 February 1890, Page 3

THE MAYOR ON WATER SUPPLY.

Sir, — The question of a water supply for (Sisborne is one which is unquestionably a fair one for difference of opinion and fair discussion. If, as you appear to think, , some of my remarks at the Council table last Tuesday should not have been made, , such remarks can only be open to your cenßur^fo|" one of two reasons ; first, that theyiWere>untrue, or second, that they were trie but inexpedient. You yourself condemn them-as untrue, but adduce no evidence except an asserted light death rate. I venture to join issue with you on your statements or inferences that (1) Grisborno is a sanatorium. (2) That a water supply is n.ofc an' immediate necessity for the inhabitants :xif the town, and the owners of the freehold of the town. (3), That a foundation of sand is a good foundation for? a towii from a sanitary point of view. ( 4j) Ifhat the town proper can not increase (or tjven fail to decrease) unless, supplied with' water, which the people living in it can tjrink free of sewage, gases, or foul tankage deposits. •Crisborne town is no sanitorium at present, and it is useless deceiving ourselves on that point; It is true fever patients do ■not always or' even usually die, if they did - our. : cemetry would long since have been •filled up. On the second point most civilized towns consider that it is necessary to have water in sufficient quantity to enable thecitizens.water to^wash with as well as to drink JuuLeven to flush the private drains. Here perhaps there is room for differences of opinion, and if you think such requirements are luxuries, such differences must be looked upon as matters of taste. A foundation of sand, I have ever understood, is the worst of all foundations for a town which buries the filth of its daily life at the back-yards of its citizens. Sand offers nothing in itself to deprive ' sewage water or kitchen refuse of its impurities, but acts as a mere sieve conveying all such filth direct and unfiltered to the -wells. Gisborne is built upon a tongue of land covered by the past action of t&e sea and the rivers with a few feet of sea-sand. At the bottom of this sand there is a stiff clay, which crops out in the banks of the Taruheru, and is impervious to "water. Below the houses and at the bottom of JJie sand there is a lake of stagisaat water rising and falling according to the season, charged and loaded with the accumulated refuse of the town since its foundation and necessarily charged with fever germs. This" sea or lake flows through all the shallow>open-bricked town wells, and ifc is under .thtese circumstances you coiisider tTie^town a sanitorium and a water supply a matter for consideration in some years yet to come. On the last point, as to the depreciation in value of town property, it cannot be denied that with the exception of business sites town property i§ unsaleable, while on the other T hand every town tenant and new-comer who becomes or is independent moves or settles to or upon freehold outside the town, arid that Nearly all building of late li&a been on sites outside the town. If the town is to be preserved it must be made a sanitorium, and this is hardly possible until it can wash its people and flush its streets and drains. I wish, Mr -Esifcdr;you had eyes to see the gases which ' -.ifee.onVtfVery one of our hot humid summer days from the foundation of sand your sanitary lore teaches you to take pride in. .-' • • . While I repeat that this question is one for discussion I at least will not waste your space with discussions with anonymous writers of letters. May I be per unfctod to add my regret that your paper, which has been justly valued in past days for its valuable public services should now be. so often prostituted to the pens of anonymous slanderers of our public men. You seem to forget that the slander of the anonymous writer published in your columns' is your own slander. A journal that has traditions, I say nothing as" to ' what it is now, should have the courage ■ v t» reftfde to be the tool of those whose minds are so polluted that they are unable to conceive any man founding his public actions on honest motives. This you may jtetiort is a matter of taste. Be it so : I am content as a matter of taste, if you tlimk such publications worthy of your joarufvl, as at present conducted, to agree with you and to regret that I should have so to agree. — I am, yours etc., C. A. DeLautour.