CITY WATER SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3035, 23 March 1917, Page 6

CITY WATER SUPPLY

7' STATEMENT BY THE MAYOR. At last evening's meeting of the' City Council, the, Mayor (Mr. J/ P.' Luke) V jriade a statement about the city water , supply. In : its course lie stated that Jthere .was quite a difference of opinion Sn; regard to the capacity of the city's ■ jwater supply. This year they had ex•lperienced an extraordinarily dry season. vjThere had teen little or no rain for •some four months, and the few light showers that had fallen had been insuffi- ' fcient to percolate through the ground Jin order to', be of any service to the lljyslem. '. The capacity of . the' dams at ; JWainui was' 140,000,000 gallons, and at .Karori 108,000,000 gallons, whicli gare fthenTa; total capacity 0f'248.000,000 gal 9ons. The summer flow at "VVafnui was ..'About 3,000.000 per day, but the outflow :'twas' 5,500,000 gallons, '.which had been ; Reduced to about 5,000,000 during the past 'Jfew days. Taking the inflow of 3,000,000 gallons per day into-consideration,' they had a storage . capacity,'for 123 days. Hinder these circumstances it was fast : (approaching the period when thoy must Wive full effect to the resolution passed hy the "council on Monday last, which permitted a certain section of : the by-law to: como into operation; This would not : .be unduly irksome to anyone, an<l : lie :' Xras sure that the people would help the . council in. the matter. T,'h6-consumption "of••water, he pointed out,, was greater. ' .since the sub-reservoirs had' been con■istructed, as they gave the higher,levels . of the city an equal pressure tfftr;the. lower portions. Day after day they had Jieen told that-tliey were going to get Tain, " but it had not come, and they • ''finished to hold Tn reserve all non-essen Tial supplies of water. There was not -! itlio.,' slightest .. .doubt in the minds of She : 'Muncirof'tiie ; city 'as to the capac- ; Sty of the water supply of Wellington: : in fact, they, had often been congratulated on-having a supply to meet'all 'flemands, until on Monday night they deicided to effect' economies. The new council, lie. hoped, wonld be given the Vecessary- authority to go on with the Oionzorongo scheme, the surveys for .v/liich wore now. being carried out; and Then that: was done, and the finance . tenders- would be called for •the work., _ 7- ■ Comment "had been made''on tlie use - iof water by the water-carts, but he pointeiit that if they used salt water complaints were made by the business people ..about salt dust blowing into their shops fchd damaging the goods. If salt water used at Newtown, he said that it would be a costly undertaking. • » At this point' the City Engineer inti.taated that salt water' was being used in ;s<ime parts of the city. ;■ The Mavor said that lie wished to pay ia tribute to the City Engineer in respect 'to the water scheme. There was no city i triors difficult to serve than tho city tif Wellington, with itß hills and dales, . Siid long-extended area, and he felt that jtliev should endorse tiie resolution passed bf: Monday's' special meeting, so that it icould be embodied in the minutfs of tlie Council and given effect to. On that' being done, the Mayor, referred to the refusal of an application . .ty- Mr. Jas., Bennie to put a. water ejector into the base of ttiq Crown Theatre, , (stating that it took 30 gallons of water to lift one gallon. All el'ectric ejector .would serve the same purposo. \ Councillor T. Bush" said there were instances where .large quantities of water ;were being used unnecessarily.' ' -'The Mavor: "If 'Councillor -Bush, will ' iame tlieiii we'll get them on the march -j>i ; ctty quickly." >■ Councillor Bush promised to see ttie BTayor this morning on tlie matter.