Some readers, those with many kilometres under their belts, may well remember the days when the night-soil man visited their homes to take away their sewage. In the early days, this was done by horse and cart. The carts had to be off the road by 6am and not start before 10pm, hence the term ‘night carts’. One thing I can be sure about, is that it is extremely unlikely the local constabulary would stop these vehicles to check their load. The night soil was taken to areas outside the towns and cities and deposited on the land, where it was ploughed in. Unsurprisingly, many of today’s suburbs are mostly built on this land, unbeknown to the occupiers.
Night carts were introduced to prevent holes being dug in backyards – the privies. In Auckland, the first night-cart operator was contracted in the late 1850s; other cities and towns followed. Some houses in Auckland were still on a bucket collection system until 1969. The last known use of a night-soil man was in North Canterbury in 1986. Some of the existing pipework in these cities dates from about this period.
It was interesting to read recently that a new subdivision in West Auckland, with some 300 properties, will have its sewage stored in community collection tanks and then trucked away to a collection point in Massey, where it will be processed into the sewage network. The story I read also says that trucking waste will also be undertaken from at least 1500 homes in the Auckland area. The reason? Simply, these areas were not or will not be connected to the mainstream stream sewage system for some time. Despite this, these developments were allowed to proceed. Trucks to the rescue again!
This situation is not too dissimilar to a development near where I live. A new subdivision has gone ahead but is not connected to the stormwater system. Instead, houses must have a stormwater tank to collect the water, which is then slowly released into the stormwater system when pressure diminishes. The reason? The existing stormwater system cannot cope with the increased flow from these houses at a time of high demand. For high demand, read: when it is raining.
THE GOVERNMENT has clearly indicated the direction it will take with removing tax from the cost of fuel at the pump, replacing it with RUC. Although the current system has some faults, it makes sense to use what exists. Of course, it did not take long for some to start jumping up and down about the extra cost to them, forgetting entirely about those who have been paying RUC for years and just getting on with it. It was interesting to read one person questioning why their so-called fuel-efficient car should pay the same amount as a person who owns and runs a bigger, less fuel-efficient one such as an SUV.
Cleary, this person, and no doubt there will be others who hold the same view, does not understand that RUC has nothing to do with fuel efficiency but the wear and tear caused when the vehicle driven on the road. Before screaming to the media, a bit of basic homework would have been in order.
THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT has recently approved an increase of 500kg in the general access vehicle mass limits for vehicles that comply with Euro-6 or equivalent noxious emissions standards. Logically, this is compensation to encourage the uptake of these vehicles. I wonder if our regulators will have the courage to pick up and implement this approach. Somehow, I doubt it.
