“DISGRACE TO CITY”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10305, 14 January 1927, Page 3

“DISGRACE TO CITY”

AUCKLAND’S SOUP-LIKE WATER

NOT FIT TO DRINK, COOK WITH, OB WASH IN. STAR ATTACKS CITY COUNCIL. (Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. The soup like color of the Auckland water since the Christmas Hood has not been a matter for pride on the part of the citizens. Referring to the matter, the Star says: “We do not believe that any town of the size of Auckland in the civilised world uses water so offensive to the eye and nose as that which the city has been compelled ’to use since Christmas. Its filth is a disgrace to the city, and it is humiliating to think that it lias reached this lowest depth of dirt at a time when Auckland has been full of visitors. Vet, this is only the climax of a long period of suffering. That filters will soon be working to remove the day and vegetable matter in the water is a comfort, but it does not alter the fact that similar conditions have obtained for years. What we *f*e really suffering from now is the failure of the City Council to take steps that have been taken by numbers of other cities some years ago. In Sir James Gunson’s regime an offer to put in a filtration plant was made to the Council. It was declined on the ground that it was not necessary,®the humus in the dam areas would disappear, and all would be well. It did not settle, and all has not been well. The incompetence of the Council delayed filtration for some time and gave us water not fit to drink, to 'cook with, or to wash in, and exposed us to the ridicule of our neighbors. What is ( done cannot be undone, but it is not profitless to recall the incompetence responsible for the present disgusting conditions.”