THE CITY ENGINEER

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 74, 20 December 1919, Page 9

THE CITY ENGINEER

BACK FROM ABROAD OIL FUEL AND CONCRETE ROADS

Mr. W, H. Morton, City Engineer, returned from a trip to America and England yesterday afternoon. Mr. Morton stated that he had had n very interesting experience rather thaji a joy trip. . He had been kept pretty busily employed when on land investigating and inspecting this or that work or plant, which might contain ideas and working notions beneficial to Wellington. Ho proceeded . from Auckland to Vancouver, which latter placo wiie becoming a fine oity, and ■ instead of speeding at once through the •#Rock:es towards the Eaut. he went down ' the Pacific Slope, calling ,it Portland (Qregon), Seattle, and San , Fraiwiseo, so;no of the newest cities and ports in the' States, and was amply repaid for . his pains. It was in these cities that . lie became ari easy convert to the oilburning engine, which was there rapidly approaching perfection from an economical point of view, favoured, of course, h\< an ample supply of oiPat a rate we could never expect to get in -New /ealand unless , we produce/I our own oil. Still, were Wellington to provide facilities in the way of oil reservons near the water front, the big "oil tankers could load up at 'Frisco, and pump their cargo into the reservoir in a few hours.. With oil,fuel it meant a pent saving if a company or corporation had its .. own -works and reservoir at or clo=e- to the waterfront. Mr. Morton said before" he left, that the provision of roads that would stand the wear and tear of the motor traffic ■was one of tho most important factors in the municipal lifo of New Zealand, and during his ateence hs has been able to inspect all kinds of road surface; both in the United States and England—concrete alone, concrete with different wearing surfaces, tisphnlt roads of-various kinds, oiled roads, etc., particulars of which are'to 1)0 supplied the City "Council iai duo course. After an interesting stay in San Francisco, Mr. Morton Went to Lμ Angolee, the wonder city of Southern California, which has many advantages to offer its rapidly-in-creasing population. This was a city of fine hotels and .very interesting manimade suburbs. Mr. Morton was particularly interested in the._ tramway services of. every place he visited, and at'Lcs Angeles, in the mountain ■ tramway to Mount Lowe, ho saw something of the kind that may have to ,be.,nrovided in ' Wellington some day for .the hill-side residents to roach their homes comfortably in minimum time. The track leads I to 'the summit of a baid-topptd mountain, from which a ypry fine jwnorama is obtained. Every ■ visitor to Los, AngelesffOM to Mount Lowp. -The-orange belts, and-fruit.farms of the district-all irrigated—are another feature 'of the nlacfl that commanded attention, fn tLe East thi City Engineer inspected several very Irjf generating plants, some driven hydraulicnlly. others by steam. Water power, wonderful as it is, lias not by any means superseded the stfam-driven plants, especially when such-plants have oil-burning furnace-?, which help so substantially • to cut down the labour bill. Iα England we went up to Newcastle, and saw a test of the. Wellington City

Corporation's new Parsons turbine (1000 li.p.) for the tramways power-house. -•There was an immense demand, for sucb engines, and indeed ill kinds of tramway material from all parts of Hie Empire, and it would be years before the British manufacturer would "be able to satisfy the demand. ' Living was h'i?h in-.cost in England, but there appeared to lie any amount of raoney about. ■ aiul it .was beinp; spent with a lavish ha-nd. The rush for steamer accommodation to ATnevicn.aml.the colo-

nies iras simply marvellous, nnd lie was i detained some weeks lonuc'r in England than he intended on that account.