JOTTINGS FROM WANGANUI.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 29 June 1911, Page 3

JOTTINGS FROM WANGANUI.

• « LOCUM TENENS OF MR. KERR, S.M. ENGINEER ON WATER SCHEME. (By Tclceraph.—Special Correspondent.) Wanganui, June 28. Mr. Fraser, of ■ Christ'church, who arrives hero at tho end of the week, will relievo' Mr. Kerr, S.M., till such tiino as the latter recovers from his recent accident. 1 Consequent on the reassessment by the Valuation Department''of small grazing runs,'tho rateable vahto of tho Manganiahu Road District has been increased by .£70,000. Reporting fo the Borough Council Mr. W. T. Mansfield (borough engineer), who has been lately giving a good deal of attention to tho water supply of t'lio town, says that ho found that' not one single piece of the numerous mechanical portions of the pipe track was in order. From Westmere to Okehu—a distance of about' thirteen miles—there wero several very serious leaks of long standing, these including a sis-inch overflow pipo which was discharging lull bore. These matters wero being attended to, and provision was also being made for tho daily scrubbing :of tho scrcens at the dam in order t'o prevent the discolouration of the water after rain. Part of the watersupply scheme included a settling tank and storage reservoir at Westmere—four miles from town—but this had never been constructed. This work, however, will ho taken in hand by the council very shortly but, on account of the time which had elapsed since the previous plans wero drawn, the estimates of cost of material antl labour, which were made; at the samo time, do not fit in with the conditions now existing. Jlr. Mansfield recommends a roof-over storage reservoir of reinforced concrete (200 ft. by 200 ft. with a depth of 20ft.). Tho cost of this he estimates at .£II,OOO, and puts its "efficient" capacity at. four and a half million gallons, which is estimated to be sufficient, on ail allowance of f>o gallons per head per day, plus 121 gallons for trade' purposes, to provido water for 20,000 people for three and a half day>, or for 70,000 for one day. In view of the expansion of the town, and a probablo extension of the water service fo the suburbs (with derangements which may be expected to occur from time lo time at lieadworks) Mr. Mansfield considers that this is' tho minimum below which it would lie unwise t'o go. The report is now under consideration by the council.