The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3037, 21 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1881.

The wisdom shr-v, by the engineers appointed by rorongb fo report upon the reservoir has been fully borne out by facts. The .r_m and Substance of that report, ie will be remembered, was that the reser ': . would bold water if it did not leal There bad been a want of public c jnfdencein the reservoir both with respect •. » its situation and to its construction, and it was to remore all suspicions that two independent experts w«re called in t<- ''ejiort upon the subject, the report pent in \-hs deemed eminently satisfactory by *Ne Municipal Council, tbernembers of which thereupon washed their hands of a! 1 further responsibility in the matter, ai.d left the future in the hands of Providence and of the town engineer. Placed in such care it was thought needles? to take into cousk'eration the " cVu-ptar of accidents " as having influence on p.obable results. The "if" in the engineer's report was not thought of, and so happily did m ny of the councillors think that Mr Peppercornc had ncrformed his duty that on the eve of his departure the propriety of voting him a bonus was debated. It is a peculiar circumstance that little more than a month had. elapsed since he left the colony w"ien it was discovered that the small compartment of the reserovir would not hold water. How long it bad beeu leaking no one knows. It was thought people stole the water, because no one connected with the Corporation could have been brought to believe that the reservoir—Mr Peppercorne's master-piece — could leak. Tbe new engineer, however, was not slow to ascertain the cause of the disappearance of tbe water, and now a heavy expenditure will have to be incurred to rectify errors in choice of site and in mode of construction. We believe that the site has more to do with the fault than the construction, and we think it would be well, before spending money in repairs, to obtain sound professional advice as to the best place for a reservoir, with a view to the extension of the water supply, The size of the present reservoir demands economy in the use of the water by the public, and it is tolerably clear that before the supply can be extended over the whole of the town some different arrangement will have to be made. When the reservoir was about to be built we protested against the scheme as being inadequate to meet the demands of more than a part of the inhabitants, but the Council, guided by its engineer, laughed public opinion to scorn. We did not so much object to the course adopted by tbe Council as to that of the engineer. It is now found that what we foretold has come to pass, and the reason why the wishes of the residents on the hills are ignored, and the water supply to them put off for an indefinite period, is doubtless due to the impossibility of the resources fo Meet further demands. Thus, with s, leaking reservoir, and incapacity to extend the scheme to all parts of the borough, we are brought face to face with a failure. We are rtill unacquainted with the extent of that failure. We do not yet know whether or not the larger compartment of the reservoir is leaking, anti'this cannot be ascertained until the &ame means are adopted as in tbe other o find out if there be a loss. To obtain the information the consumption mr<bi; be stopped and all the valves closed, wMch would cause considerable public inconvenience unless due warning were But we think no time should be lost over the matter. It is of the utmost importance to learn whether the largo reservoir is sound or otherwise. If it be unsound it will only be money thrown away to patch it up, because the ground on which it stands is of such .* character that no solid foundation can be secured. It is just as well to know the worst, and knowing it to decline to throw good money after bad.