THE SEWERAGE SCHEME.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3559, 26 June 1912, Page 9

THE SEWERAGE SCHEME.

HOUSE CONNECTIONS DISCUSSED. COUNCIL TO APPOINT TWO v plumbers:

Klie <iuostion of sewerage connm*tions was considered by the Borough Council last -evening. The Finance Committee reported: (1) Ibis question was considered at length, when -it was decided no tar as the Committee could see, that nothing could be done in the matter ot advancing ratepayers a larger sum than the £l2 as stipulated in the voting paper when the £IO,OOO loan was raised for this purjxise, therefore your Committee have no .recommendation to make under this head.

. (2) Your Committee would recommend that the Council'put on a staff of two sanitary plumbers to undertake the plumbing work in connection with the sewerage installation and that the Engineer be authorised to. take the necessary steps to- Have this recommendation" given effect to.

(3) In cases where the.. £l2 advanced for house connections is asked for. your Committee would suggest that the money should be 'expended in accordance with plans and specifications approved of by the Borough Engineer and that no future advance be made by the Council unless the work has been previously arranged through .the officers cf the Council.

Mr J. C. E. Turner, President of the Trades Council, forwarded the following resolutions passed at a meeting of ratepayers held on Tuesday, Juno IS i

(1) That this meeting pledges itself to prevent any further borrowing by the Borough Council except in the estimates for same, sufficient money is allocated for the purpose of putting in connections for those who cannot afford to pay more than interest on the money; and also .that steps be at once taken to alter the present by-laws so that while making it efficient it comes within the means of the present population of Gisborne. (2) That .the , Borough Council make only one advance to each ratepayer, j

The Mayor said -that the Finance Committee went carefully into this and had a consultation with their solicitor on the question. They caraejo the conclusion that it was impossible to grant a larger sum than the £l2 for connections because it was illegal. They had nearly £9OOO in hand for advancing for connections, and they could not .raise a further loan until this was expended. Seeing that complaints had been made as to the cost the committee thought it would be wise if the Council would appoint two plumbers to carry out some of the work on behalf of those occupiers who prefer the Council. The Committee realised they did not want a large staff of plumbers. If they appointed two plumbers it would enable them to ascertain whether the price that was being charged was two high, and if a saving could be effected. If the experiment was a -surcess it might mean that the local plumbers would do the work for Jess. The Committee thought this would be one way out of the difficulty and they ■ consequently recommended this course being adopted. Regarding the motion from the ratepayers’ meeting that only one advance of £l2 should be made to each ratepayer, the Committee went into the question and decided such a course would be illegal. Before the £l2 was advanced plans would have to be prepared and submitted to the Engineer, and'the work would have to be done in accordance with these plans. The Committee decided there should be no advance made after the work was done. The advance would have to he applied for before hand- He honed that the Council would adopt the recommendations and perhaps people would realise as the work was going on these sewerage connections would not be as expensive as some people thought. Cr. AVebb: Does the Council intend to do the connection and collar the £l2 and then let the balance of the work ?

The Mayor: The Council would guarantee- to do the work for what it costs and the owner will have to pay anything over the £l2. We hope in many cases to do it for £l2. Cr. Brown did not think two plumpers would be much use seeing tne number of connections that had to be made. Supposing the ratepayers all wanted the Council to do their work, what was the Council going to do. They had either to take over the whole work and put on a lairge staff or leave it alone. Two plumbers!— that was just making a fool of it. He thought it would be unwise to enter into competition with outside firms. H©. would certainly oppose the clause relating to plumbers. Or. Smith said he objected to the engagement of plumbers as an unnecessary expense and ho did not think that they would get plumbers to work for them. Under the award a plumber was not allowed to work for anyone except an. authorised plumber. Cr Wade: That is so. Cr. Smith, continuing, said that the plumbers would require more money than any of the. master plumbers paid and that would be an expense. Tli© Engineer: If that is so we are in the hands of the UnionCr. Smith said that was not so. The expense of providing a shop and tools for these plumbers would be an expense. He was satisfied that the Council could not do the work cheapei than the plumbers were doing it, and ho did not consider that the employment of two .plumbers would relieve the position. _ • , Cr. Wildish said he did not think it would be a wise step to employ two plumbers. He would rather go to extremes and employ a large .staff and take over the connections altogether. Cr. Wade maintained the Council should not do the plumbing work, and lie thought the Council would make a big mistake in tackling it-. It vas -a trade that., required a pretty good handling as tile cost of materials was very high. If the Council decided to do this work it might run them into a great deal of expense. 1 lie ,4., master plumbers could employ all the licensed plumbers that they could iget as they were wanting men at present. Heralding the question of entemig into competition with local firms, fie could point out that there wore cases where local plumbers had lost money on jobs.' He did not think it would he a good policy to undertake the work as there would be no proper supervision and they might not get the best value for their money. He thought the by-laws were excellent and should bo retained. - In reply to Or. Collins, Cr. \Yade ■said he understood members of the Plumbers’ Union, did not -undertake

to work for any man unless he was a master plumber. Cr- Collins said that it was the duty .of the Council to conserve the interests of filio ratepayers. He thought that the ratepayers were placed in an unfortunate position at the present time and it 3vas the duty. of the Council to extricate them. It- had never been authoritatively stated that the- Council did net- intend to enforce those bylaws, and they might force some people to sell their houses if they had to . carry but the wc-rk of connecting them with the sewers, .unless the .plumbing question was faced. He pointed out that .the ratepayers voted for a loan of £IO,OOO for sewer connections an(l that legally meant laying down the pipes and that plumbing did not enter into the matter. Therefore . the Council could raise another loan for the plumbing work. The cost of plumbing was out of all reason. Cr. Brown: Are you an expert. Cr. Collins: I don’t pretend to be but to the best of my belief and to that of most of tho ratepayers, the plumbing charges are far too great. Continuing, Cr. Cbllins though? that the Council could assist in levelling down these prices as far as possible. If the Council employed t"'o plumbers the work would be done plus the cost of labor and 5 per cent, for supervision and nothing more. The argument had been raised that they would have to pay very much higher wages, but ho instanced the cost of the present sanitary service and the extra expense that would be entailed if it were maintained. They had to deal with this matter, and if the Council did not support the Committee then the responsibility would be with, those who objected. Ho explained that .it had been stated at a meeting of ratepayers that he had said the people were ignorant. He did not make this remark. What he said was that. Uio resolutions that were forwarded were based on ignorance of the subject. He would be sorry to call the people ignorant and did not use shell an expression. Cr. Bright said that if he had boon a master plumber he would have remained dumb on this subject, for it was dealing with a thing from which a plumber got his living. Regarding the advancement of £l2 until the £IO,OOO was expended, they could not vary the proposals. Taking a. com-mon-sense view of the subject of connections he thought it -included the plumbing. A sewerage connection was ono which made the whole work effective and it could not stop at the end of a pipe. He attributed the trouble with the cost of connections to overspeculation in land. People had putdown small deposits and this was where the trouble resulted. He did not think there would be any harm in employing two plumbers and this was a way the Committee suggested of setting a price. AA 7 here an advance was applied for there would have to be proper specifications provided. He pointed out that it had been said the by-laws were too stringent, but ho would like someone to tell them in what respect they were too- exacting. Tli4 sacrifice he thought that had been made would be fully compensated for by the cleanliness of the connections -when installed.

Cr. Sawyer suggested that one plumber should be put on and if he were a success then they should put on a dozen.'

Cr. AA’ebb was against the proposal to employ two plumbers. Cr. Hepburn, though against, day labor, said he was in favor of the CounoiL employing two men for the plumbing work as a trial. Clauses one and three were carried unanimously, and No. 2 clause was carried on the casting vote of the Mayor-