Arizona republican., 1909-05-16
WASTING OCEANS OF WATER
 CITY PLANS BATHTuB TAX.
NEW YORK PROPOSES TO MAKE
 CITIZENS PAY FOR LUXURY.
While 4,Ooo, 100000 Gallons of Water
 Run to Waste Over Its Dams.

While 4,Ooo, 100000 Gallons of Water
 Run to Waste Over Its Dams.
 
 New York. May 1O.-(Special Corre-
 spondence of The Republican. )-In an
 effort to prevent the waste of city wa
 ter which is now estimated to amount
 to 100,000,000 gallons daily, and in
 cidentally to add to the municipal rev
 enues, a measure is now under consid-
 eration by the local lawmakers which.
 if passed. will amount to a tax on
 cleanliness. putting that virtue ahead
 even of godliness in the matter of cost
 at least The proposed tax which will
 be levied not only on regulation bath
 tuhs, but also on bowls and stands
 which may be used as substitutes. is
 graded from four dollars a year for
 one in a house or building having
 frontage of 16 feet or less. to s24 a year for one tub in a building with a frontage of from 90 to 100 feet. There are other unique features to the ordi-
 nance which proposes to make water an expensive luxury. For instance if a church requiring immersion of it's converts maintains a fount for the baptism of new members, it will have to pay a tax of s10 to the city. To this clause, however, one alderman has objected on the ground that 1t amounts to putting 6 tax on a desire to go to heaven. Every field in which the city's water is used is covered by this re markable ordinance. even to the water trough in the horse stall or the pile of mortar requiring water for its use as building material. There will be a tax for wetting down buildings in the course of demolition to prevent the spread of dust, and a tax of s5 a year is also to be applied to canal boats for the water which they use on board for domestic purposes while tied up at city docks. Even saloons, incongrous as it may seem, will be taxed for the water which they serve. While the city is planning to discourage waste in the use of water among its resi- dents it is setting them a bad example in this respect for it has just been brought out that over 4,000, ,000, 900 gallons of water has been allowed to run to waste over the dams of the Croton water supply during the past few weeks. or enough if properly stor- ed to obviate for several years to come the need of the Catskill water project in which nearly $200. .000. 900 is being spent. Thus New York appears to af- ford a literal illustration of the old proverb about saving at the spigot while wasting at the bung-hole.
 The announcement this week that the famous Koch farm in the Bronx will be sold at auction next July. com pletes an interesting story of the growth of the city in the past sixty years The farm is famous because it is the last stronghold of Farmer Koch. its owner. who ever since 1S49 has carried out his policy at increas- ingly greater distances, of farming in the city, at the closest possible point to the downtown markets. For more than half a century the growth of the city has been chasing northward the man who farmed nearest to it's center. until at last it has driven him out. His first farm. leased from the Astors in 1S49, covered the entire block between | Broadway and Eighth avenue and | Forty fourth and Forty fifth streets. | where the big Hotel Astor Now daily | consumes the products of hundreds | of farms and his cows were pastured l on the land now covered by the pave ments of LOngacre Square, the center | of the theater and club district of the l city. When the lease became too val l uable for agricultural purposes. Far | mer Koch moved on to Harlem where | he again leased a tract from the As | tors at 136th street where lots which | now sell for $100,O00 could be had for | s2OO each and corners for $400 Again | in 1867 Mir. Koch was forced northward | and went on to the Bronx where he | bought farm. This has now become | SO valuable that the city's veteran far mer is going to sell it and relinquish at eighty-two years of age his ambi- ton to end his life as a metropolitan farmer.