REPLY TO MR LYSRAR.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 876, 28 April 1903, Page 2

REPLY TO MR LYSRAR.

(To the Editor of the Times.)

Sm,—"lt is universally admitted that nothing more readily throws the brain into an abnormal condition than concentrated attention on some one subject to the exclusion of every other,” says an eminent authority, and lrom Mr Lysiiur's characteristically rambling effusion it would appear that ho is developing alarming symptoms of water on the brain. (I trust tiio foregoing statement will be regarded by your renders as at least equally as charitablo as an accusation of " gross ignorance” or " attempting to throw dust in the eyes of the doctors.”) I have seen Mr Lysnar in many roles, and must say I like him least in that of “ the village prophet,” when he emphatically declares that water will never be supplied to the town from Waihirere, more especially when one reilects that the bombastic assertion, is made in the teeth of the overwhelming majority of electors who voted in favor of Waihirere, thus proving their recognition as an antiquated absurdity of amateur interference with professional undertakings requiring expert knowledge of the very highest order. The whole scheme has boon exhaustively threshed out, and all the objections set forth in Mr Lysnar's letter have been completely refuted by Mr Mestayer himself ; hut Mr Lysnar possesses (amongst many admirable qualities) a fund of stubbornness and wrong-hcadedne-s that “e’en though vanquished ho can argue still,” with the not-to-be wondered-at result that during one of his most dramatic lougwiuded perorations a brother councillor snores in derision.

With your kind permission, I shall answer Mr Lysnar’s objections by a few quotations from Mr Mestayer : —“ So far as tiio character of the watershed and quality of water is concerned, Waihirere is practically perfect ” (page 3, main report). "The advantages arc so distinctly in favor of the Waihirere scheme that I have no hesitation in recommending that it ho adopted as the source of the water supply to Gisborne ” (page C). “ I consider that all the indications are in favor of the ground being water-tight, and my opinion is founded on over oo years’ experience in water-works practice and with reservoirs in very different situations. In the Beetaloo reservoir, which I desigued for the South Australian Government, the water was 100 ft deep at the dam, and although the rocks forming the sides of the valley were so laminated and intersected with cracks and fissures that no large blocks could he obtained for the work, it has proved perfectly water-tight-, without puddling of anv kind” (letter of Mr Mestayor, of 29th January, 19U2).

Su far from rocks being anything from 15 to 100 feet underground, as stated by Mr Lysnar, the actual borings undertaken by Major Winter and Mr Drummond ail showed solid rock from 8 to lo feet below the surface (same letter).

In his reply to queries of the Borough Council Mr Mestayer says distinctly a supply of 40 gallons per head per day for 10,000 people, including reticulation, can be got from Waihirere for £'Bo,ooo. What on earth can be plainer? From the foregoing quotations it will bo seen that Mr Mestaycr has completely answered all Mr Lysnar’s objections, and, I repeat, places the question beyond the limits of reasonable controversy. In common fairness to Mr Mestayer his report must be road as a whole, and not picked to pieces from patchy sentences, when it will be fouud—aud indeed I presume it has been found by an overwhelming majority of the electors—to conclusively establish the undoubted practicability and economy of the scheme proposed. —I am, etc.,

J. SUISISIDAN,