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, (8) The Board is given power to borrow by way of special loan such sums as are necessary for carrying out the purposes of the Act, and the local authorities of the districts within the Inner Area are liable to contribute annually such sums as may be required to meet the Board's expenditure, such contributions being assessed in proportion to the mean percentage of the rateable capital value and population of the respective districts. During the construction of the Motukorea scheme the annual cost thereof and the general administrative expenses of the Board are to be borne by all the local authorities in the Inner Area, but the annual costs of the Board's present scheme are to be borne by the local authorities of the former district of the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board. So soon, however, as the Metropolitan Board's new main sewers are available for receiving the sewage from any local district the local authority of such local district will be liable to contribute to the whole annual cost of the Board. The local authorities of the Inner Area may pay the contribution for which they are liable out of their ordinary funds,, or they may strike and collect a rate based on the rateable value of the rateable property within their respective districts, and provision is made to enable the local authorities to classify such rateable property and to levy such rates on a sliding scale according to such classification. (9) The Board is given power to make by-laws and also various other powers necessary for carrying out the provisions of the Act. 20. It should be mentioned, in view of the strong opposition to the Motukorea scheme which developed after the passing of the Act, that prior to its enactment the Local Bills Committee of Parliament heard evidence and received representations from interested persons and public bodies, and it would appear that the provisions of the proposed legislation were given full consideration. 21. Soon after the Act was passed the opposition to the Motukorea scheme increased materially and the Auckland and Suburban Drainage League was formed with the object of preventing the execution of the scheme. The league received strong support and quickly became an active organization. In particular it organized the presentation to Parliament in each of the years 1945 and 1946 of petitions. The first of the petitions was referred to the Local Bills Committee, which eventually reported that it had no recommendation to make. The object sought by the 1946 petition was the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry to inquire generally into questions concerning the conversion of sewage, garbage, and other waste materials by composting into organic fertilizers, and more particularly to examine questions connected with the use of organic manures, the relationship between the organic content of soils and their fertility, and between fertilizers and the nutritional quality of food and the incidence of sickness, and the utilization of town wastes. The New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association supported the petition, which was recommended to Parliament for favourable consideration by the Select Committee which considered it. The scope of the petition was not limited to Auckland. The Government appointed an interdepartmental Committee to study these questions, and an interim report of this Committee was produced to us and will be referred to later. Prior to the formation of the Drainage League and for a short time afterwards the opposition to the Board's proposals was based on the danger of pollution of the waters of the Waitemata Harbour arising, with the consequent contamination of bathing beaches and the possibility of injury to public health. It is to be observed, however, that since the year 1946 the principal ground of the opposition has been the waste involved by the failure to utilize effectively the valuable ingredients contained in sewage by the production of humus by compost-making. 22. In the meanwhile the Metropolitan Board and its staff continued to investigate the problems involved, including those connected with the disposal of trade wastes and the methods of treating and disposing of sewage.

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