Wellington Independent FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 3162, 31 March 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1871.

The able and exhaustive repot t of Dr Hector, published in our columns, yesterday, must settle for ever the question of the necessity of a proper supply of water for the city of Wellington. " The enquiry is not yet concluded," Dr Hector gays, " but the results already determined are, 1 think, sufficient to indicate i hat a proper water supply is urgently required for the city on sanitary grounds alone." Councillor Carpenter, however, thinks otherwise. He thinks that his constituents do not require water, as they have plenty in their wells and tanks. Having got their own supply, they need not pay for water to other parts of the town. In other words, the people of Thorndon have water, which, although by Dr Hector's analysis it is dangerous to their own lives, and especially to their children's, to use, yet they are willing to use it, and brave all the consequences. Council lor Carpenter thorougly endorses this determination, and consistently opposes all attempts to procure an adequate water supply, because his constituents (us he says) '' would not give a penny for it." This 1 doctrine, if fully carried out, would lead to the disintegration of society. Any section, and, of course, therefore, any individual, might set up their own opinion against that of the constituted authority, and resist every measure i hat would run counter to their own cherished notions. It is very dith'cult to convince a person like Councillor Carpenter. The only way to bring him back to a consciousness of his obligations as a member of the boJy politic, is to allow him to carry out his notions to his heart's content. Suppose, for instance, such a ono were to try to commit suicide on the ground that he doesn't want to live, as nosv he says " he doesn't want water " that other people rnay choose to prolong their existence, bat he " does not care a penny for it," he would discover his mistake when standing as a criminal before a magistrate, and would learn that he will not be allowed to carry out his own inclinations, and that society cares for his life, even if he should cease to value it. Mr Carpenter's constituents, too, have only to carry into effect this same selfish doctrine, to find that if they violate tho primary conditions by which ull society- coheres, that the law will interfere and protect them against themselves. Recent journals report at home two or three medical gentlemen being fined, with the alternative of going to gaol, for not vuscinating their children. 'J hese gontlemen had scientific considerations to urge in their behulf, and pleaded that they were doing their best for their children, but the magistrate was inexorable, and they

were punished. The inhabitants of Thorndon dare not neglect to register the births of their children, although the same objection which they advance to the water supply would be a very plausible excuse. They might say that they did not value registration a penny; they put down their children's names in the old family bible, after the timehonored fashion of their fathers, and if people wished any other registration they ought to pay for it. If the law they at present obey stringently provides that their children shall be vaccinated, in order to prevent them cntchingdisease, surely it is no abnormal thing for it tu require them to provide such a supply of watGr as will, in the words of Dr Hector, save their children from "misery and suffering." But in this narrowminded and selfish objection Councillor Carpenter seems to overlook altogether the necessity of sanitary reform. He seems to forget that even in favored Thorndon there are drains and sewers. It is quite clear that no drain can be efficient through which there do not flow currents of water. If, in any particular cuso, it be not practicable to cause a current of water to be constantly flowing through a drain, then contrivances must be adopted to cause currents to flow through it at regular and no distant intervals. Without a provision for this regular and abundant supply of water, drains not only fail in accomplishing their object, but they become positively injurious—they generate and diffuse the very poison, the formation of which it is thuir object to prevent. When the animal and vegetable matters contained in a drain ni-3 not regularly and completely washed away, they become stagnant (as we see them every day on Thordon) ; a deposit is gradually formed ; the matters constituting this moist and semi-fluid de posit are placed under circumstances highly favorable to their decomposition ; at legulur distances along all the thoroughfares, close to the pavement, and before the doov of the City Council Chamber itself the poison thus genea'.ed regularly escapes. The extent, according to Dr. Southwood Smith, to which poison is actually thus generated and carried forth, " may bo uccurately measured by every inch of drain which is not regularly washed by a good stream of water." According to Councillor Carpenter's theory, he ought to be at liberty to set fire to his own shop. If so, it is vain r.o urge the necessity of a water supply to put out other people's f/Kes ! But he must surely be aware that if such a doctrine were carried out to the full there would be no Civic Government, no Corporation, and no Councillor Carpenter ! If society were thus disintegrated so that (shall we say) tho philosophic or Thorndon section of it could be allowed to say to the plebian. or Te Aro section, " I have no need of thee," it would be resolved into its primeval elements, and every citizen would be a law unto himself. Public policy, however, requires that a man may not do with his own life, his own health, or his own property just as he, pleases. Laws are passed to prevent disease, so civic bodies are empowered to pass such regulations and provide such sanitary improvements as will promote the health and happiness of all. The water supply, if CRvried out according to Mr NT. Marchant's able report, will be a great sanitary boon, and a great preservative *of the city against extensive fires. Nor is this all. There are many industries now unknown which a small water power would render payable. We have heard of several already in contemplation, and we understand the water power will be of such a force as to warrant the expectaticn of its being employed for many purposes for which steam power is not so well adapted. A minor but very iinpor ant service this water supply will render, is that of laying the dust in our streets, and no one who has walked along the beach the last day or two will be disposed to undervalue it. Surely when the city is thus to be rendered more healthful, property and life more safe from lire, several new industries created, and the comfort of the citizens greatly enhanced, the objections of tho people of Thorndon on the score of having wells filled with water surcharged with poisonous ingredients, are not worthy of being entertained for a single moment.