WELLINGTON'S PERIL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 277, 19 August 1919, Page 6

WELLINGTON'S PERIL

DELAYED WATER SUPPLY

EXTENSION

MENACE OF DRY SUMMERS

(By "Spinifex.")

Tn Friday's Dominion I read a stat went by the Mayor that the City Bi gineer's department was at present ei. gaged upon the task of testing th ground atovo the Morton dam to see i it was scoure enough to stand anothe and a kwgar dam higher np tho valley I iiad really begun lo think that tin City Council had been lulled into 1 lu£..argy by tho winter rains, and tha nothing was doing over the hills a W'ainui. lam not cheered in the leas by the Mayor's assurance that next t nothing is doing. When tbo shortage o water was being felt last autumn am the autumn before—the Major and coun oil talked very long and loud abou briuging in tho Orongorongo 6upply. Ji order to convince himself that tliere wa an Orongorongo stream sit all tho Mayo, olimbcrod over the hill at great I>®r3onn inconvenience, and camo back with tli assurance that there was a stream iin< that it would bo of immense value to ttii city, and that the plan would, be to a omce survey the country with a view t< proceeding at as early a date as possibi with the boring' of a tunnel that woiu< bring a portion of the waters of tn Orongorongo through the hill into til gorge stream that flows into tho Jlortoi dam. Had that policy been pursued and tenders called for the work that tun nel, worked from both ends, would hav' been started by this and probably, ban ing accidents, have been through somtimo next year. But now the Mayo; hap gone oil' at a. tangent, and from til nature of your report, I take it tna ho lias jettisoned, for tho time bem| at all events, t'ho idea of pacing i tunnd in favour of erecting . anothe sL» dam of 800,000,000 gallons, capa city. I would like to say that, in m; opinion, the council has not chosen, tn wisest course, ami one that wul gj^ 1 Wellington tho quickest relief from tn peril of "droughty autumns. My reasons for bobbving that the lam should be a work of seconday im porfance to thai of the long-delated tun nel, aro really based on Mr. - Lukes ovn remarks. If the Wamui stream, to 'quite a time," only contributed 30 pe »nt. of the draw off needed for the city supply it stands to reason that, it tn season commenced to dry to a litt earlier, or was uniformly a little rnor Irv than last year, the stream that ha served Wellington so faithfully migh Falter in its allegiance, and only give u_ '0 or even 10 per cent, of our daily ie •(uiremente. If that were the case cannot see how a new dam w to- hell accept aa a means to stave off a famm through the quantity of water it wil st The Morten dam is supposed to hold Then full, 120,000,000 gallons, but n officer of the council would m that th ,asin held that quantity, when full, to lav, as ever since the reservoir »» Jit the river has been bringing. dowj leposits of silt and bracken and build J up the bottom with unceasing in lustrv It must also be so with th lew dam in timo, but that ttrfiaps i jesido the .point. What uto tinJ■ po£ 3 that a new source of supply,, a rible, measured reinforcpmenf w how v-ould 1» a better asset to this city tha mother storage reservoir, . and woul >robably be a cheaper, quicker, and al sgother better means of raril of dry seasons. Then again thi iouncil is putting all ite mo basket in ereoting dam above dan n the one little valley, and if «. ;imo, the new dam sWld ™ sl3 tself, the other two. >e swept away as twigs. Even the mos ■arefullv-bualt dams in America am Sre have been known to give way ■or S is no more secret wrrodwi orce than water under pressure, a •srSrfix L ,tSinß. H». t> W tofff imj ng out for all the neighbouring boi iughs. Tho Mayor stands nietaphonc dly, on the peak of.Mt. Victoria, an hrows out his arms to Miramar, Kaion Sastbourne, the Hutt and Petone urgin, hem to crown his long years of seme iv creating "one big metropolitan area vW he holds office, W hem high pressure water and diainag jid other municipal luxuries whioh the; oign would have. To supply this lie* io proposed firet to build a dam, dc jonding still on a source of supply limself admits only provides 30 pft ent. of the need at the summer ends t mar be that both the dam and tn unnel are needed, but if it earn# to i linch—and it has-then it isi for tb ouncil to say whether it would not b soedient to select the tunnel whicl rould give a new and untainted souro if supply. The new dam would tak. !hX or four years to build, f a contract were let, the tunnel coufi » pushed through in a year. In an, ■tJ, the peril of dry summers is no iver for Wellington. At the rate th ouncil move we have still to run -amut of aUleast two more summers nd if one or both are abnormally dry :he. people will know all about it. It may'be news to the publio to leari hat, despite the fairly continuous rauu ,f July and August the Kai-on dam. ave not yet filled np by a Ion? way, rhich to my mind further empnasiseE ;he fact that tho demand is more •auidly than ever catching up, to the upply. This question to Wellington is awe important than Jelhcoe, or the 'en«ral election or anything else and iiv sincere hope is that th« council will Stir itself to vhe extent of. ascertaining rhat is the best water supply policy, nd to pursue it swiftly. I would go a far as to say that by so doing they rill avert a crisis of a very ugly nature. Wellington is growing so rapidly!