JANUARY 17, 1957

1920 when six people owned motor cars and those
people by the overwhelming majority were the ouly
people who had domestic taps installed on their
premises. As a matter of fact, in a great number of
cases owners of taxis actually use the publie stand
post for washing their cars. You can go down to the
Lower Green at any tine and see them using water
from a public standpost to wash their ears.

Hon. M. E. COX: If they do that, they will
be breaking the law.

Mr. BE. D. MOTTLEY: Mr. Chairman, surely
they are breaking the law but you have come a long
way from the days of carriages. The Hon. Minister
says that if you wash off your car with water from
a public standpost, you will be breaking the law.
That is out of the question. He also talks about the
owners of big garages and racehorse owners, Let
us forget the question of the owners of big garages
and racehorse owners. That is brought home forcibly.
We can do something in this matter but not in this
way. I do not think we should include motor vehicles
jn this sense. No number of big garages in this
Isltnd should convince this Chamber trat we should
make au amendment in this way.

The Section goes on to read ‘‘or a supply for
any trade, manufacture, or business or for watering
gardens, or for fountains or for any ornamental
purpose.’’ Everybody agrees to that. I may say at
this point that with your new system of tourist en-
couragement, you are offering prizes to people in
villages for well kept gardens, and certain allow-
ances should be made for that. i am sure the [on.
Minister if I asked him a question about this mat-
ter will say that this amendment is only inserted
for those who are carrying on trade.

We have registered in the parish of St. Michael
over 2,000 hired cars. The business of hired ears is
not confined fo one ar iwe persons, Thandreds of
people are making their living by keeping a taxi or
a motor lorry. Some who own hired ears and motor
lorries do not even have a pipe in their vard. Dut
these people have to present their taxis to their
clients in a clean and sanitary condition. Tf they
have to present their motor vehicles in a clean and
sanitary condition, must they wash them off with
sea-water? This amendment would be alright if vou
were dealing with garages of the old days. but a
man who keeps a taxi has to prt water in the radia-
tor of the car and wash it off to keep it sanitary. I
do not think this amendment shon!d be made in this
way.

Mr. ALEDER: Mr. Chairman, every possible
Clause of that old Act should he scrutinised by us
very eaqremillly becatise we have gwoue a far way since
TAD. Tn 1895 the exploration of the water resources
of this Island was then being earried on and the dis-
tribution was considerably smaller than what it is
now. At that time we spent a neeliotbie amount for
running the Waterworks Department but today we
ave spending over ST milion to explore jew water
resources, and millions of gallons of water have been
released for public consumption. Therefore, the pro-
Vibition whieh the 7895 Act contains, does nol neces
sarily mean that that should be included in any new
Bill. When a thing is searce, you make legislation.
punitive or otherwise, to take care of the limited
supply to he released. but after vou have spent mil-
hans of dollars ev vour water supply and vou have
it in greater quantities, you do not have to put in
vone new Act these prohibited hits of legislation. Tt
is shortsightedness to do so. You have a_ sufficient
supnlys of water. Districts which suffered for water
jn the past now have a generous supply; therefore
vou do not need to have all these old clauses inserted
into the new Bill. It is unnecessary. Why should

 

 

OFFICIAL GAZETT 249

you ask tax payers whose rates have been increased la
recent years and whose money has been taken from
them so as to spend larger sums on the extension of
the water service to pay for the water which they
take to wash off their motor cars? You are telling
them now that if they have a motor car they cannot
wash it with the water from a domestic tap.

1 am going 10 suggest to the Govceriment that,
with the realisation of the water suppty of the Island
being What it is vow, these restrictions should not be
applied because they cannot help the colony pros-
per. You are getting a greater use of a natural re.
source which does not cost a cent. Water is like the
air; you only have to tap it. We have the nevessary
skill and machinery to do so; therefore these puni-
tive Sections of the Bill need not be re-inserted.

I ean remember, say, from 1910. This Water-
works Act was drafted in 1895 when most house.
holders had to walk two or three miles for a pail of
water. Only exclusive householders could afford a
tap in their homes or could obtain water from a well
on their premises. This amendment might all be very
well if we were living in those days but today the
situation has changed entirely. As a matter of faet
our Water situation is such today that no 12
or 24 persons should be allowed to assemble
vt one given standpost te draw a pail of water.
Instead of having one standpost to  aecommodate
people from a district and an adjoining village
every village should) have its own standpost.
Every village contains some two hundred or
three hundred people. If a private householder is
allowed to have two or three taps in, his house, where
the people of a district arc too poverty-stricken to
afford a tap, you should make sure now that you
have such a generous supply of water that the in-
conveniences suifered in the past are absolutely re-
moved.

4.55 pan,

Therefore, that Clause can be taken out, because
you know full well that every man who owns a motor-
car is gulng to wash it. iNet a avember here would
say he is not going to wash his motor-car whether he
has a private tap or otherwise, so what is the use of
putting in legislation which would bring conflict be-
tween legitimate citizens and the police. Th is a
waste of time. I believe it must be a little short-
sightedness on the part of the Attorney General’s
Qiiee, but it is unnecessary in this day. We have
travelled fast from 1895 to now and it should be cut
out. The more freely you allow the population to
tse water regardless of how they use it. the quicker
the ceouemy of the istind wotdd vise. beeause | know
many a householder carns an extra dollar because of
the Increased supplies of water whith we have been
able to get, and T am hoping that the Government.
vill see the wisdom in the suggestion of the hon.
‘nior member for the City. It is unnecessary and
it should be removed.

Mr. BRANCKER: Mr. Chairman, T must eon-
fess Hike the hon. members who have just spoken that
T do not find myself enamoured by this proposed
amendment. [t says ‘ ‘motor-vehicle’ shall have the
same meaning as is assigned to it hy the Motor Vehi-
cles and Road Traffie Act of 1937."? and the meaning
Sir, is any mechanically propelled vehicle for use
on the road, but it does not include vehicles con-
structed exclusively for use on rails or other specially
nrepared trains. so vou will see how wide this defini-
fon is, In 1894. of eonrse.—T helieve that neither of
us Was livine at the time—people who owned horses
were people in affluent circumstances. Tn 1894. T
douht whether there are more than two members of
this present Chamber sitting in here af the moment