HEALTH IN COUNTY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4235, 24 January 1940, Page 7

HEALTH IN COUNTY

PLUMBING AND SEWERAGE BY-LAWS. THEIR APPLICATION IN WAIPA. When it was proposed, at Monday’s meeting of the Waipa County Council, to accept a recommendation of the district officer of health to extend the plumbing and sewerage by-laws to the whole of the county, instead of to areas adjacent to boroughs, it was stated that at present there are sixteen counties with the model bylaws applying to the whole area and six others with partial application. Cr Church at once indicated his opposition, saying. that the by-laws would be harsh, costly, and unworkable in the country. Cr Hall: And the farmer has to pay the fees ! The clerk said adoption of the bylaws would prevent any but a licensed drain-layer fropi doing the work—that was, if the regulations were enforced. To a question, the clerk said the by-laws were, only to apply to dwellings.

Cr Hall said the costs would be heavier to the farmers, for the travelling expenses of the licensed man would have to be paid. Cr Church said he knew many farmers who were quite as competent to do the plumbing work at a farmhouse as a licensed man. Cr McGee agreed. Cr Onion said the by-laws might be, and probably were, necessary in closely-settled areas, but he Could not see any warranty for applying the by-laws over the whole of the county. The Council had criticised the Government for its multitude of restrictive regulations, and here the Council was asked to impose a further set of regulations. He would oppose any motion to impose those regulations. Cr Reid agreed.

The chairman (Cr S. C. G. Macky) said he believed the" regulations would be enforced reasonably. Cr Hall said many dozens of farmers were competent to do plumbing and drainage work at farmhouses. A licensed man would only increase costs needlessly.

Cr Reid said that plumbing and draining work done by registered men would be subject to inspection by the health officer. Cr Cldrke said the Council had applied the by-law to a radius of two

miles from Hamilton and Te Awamutu: yet there was objection to applying it to the whole county. If it was victimisation in one part of the county it was also victimisation in the other part. It was pointed out that if houses were erected all over the county under the Rural Housing Act it would be necessary to have licensed men doing the work. Cr Church said that farmers’ costs Would inevitably be increased. He -would oppose the recommendation. -Cr Garland pointed out that every farmhouse should be sanitary in the interests of health. He favoured the recommendation. Cr Hall moved that the finance committee’s recommendation be rejected. Cr Onion seconded. , Those voting for the motion were Crs Hall, Onion, Livingstone, Graham.. Church, and McGee, and against it were Crs Macky, Reid, Johnson, Clarke, and Garland.