THE PAREORA WATER RACE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 837, 28 February 1877, Page 3

THE PAREORA WATER RACE.

The Timaru Herald gives the following account of the preeent condition of the Parecra water rat>e, recently constructed to supply the town of Timaru with water :

The Parc-ora water race was complfited in November, 1874, and iu December, 1875, it was taken over from the contractor, on the certificate of the late engineer to the borough, Mr Williamson. The contractor bad maintained the work in an efficient coudition for a year prior to taken over : that is to say that he had kept it in &ucb ft state that water flowed the whole way ffom the Pareora into the gullies in the town of Tinr.ru. He therefore received tho final payment duo under his contract, and the ratepayers of Timaru became the proud possessors of the Pareora water race. Let us see what the nature of that property wag, Tho race consisted of a Biaall open ditch, about thirty miles Jong, cut along the face of the downs where the character of the county admitted of it; or eupplementcd by wooden flaming where valleys had to be crossed, and ; n c ne or two pi aces by i ron flaming, suspended In V'ires, At the head of therace, where it passes Bj )rig the side of the precipitous gorge of the Fareora, it is cut in the rock, or carried in wooden Burning for a distance of about two miles. At several points deep and steep gullies, separating the lofty spurs of Mount Misery, find their termination abruptly, right on the water race 5 and at each of these points a wojden shoot was fixed, with the

of carrying the stream flowing down the gully, over the race and into the Pareora. At several points also the rocky side, of the river bed was not sufficiently perfect to allow of a channel being cut with solid wails ; and at these points the faulty places were made good by piling up boulders, and closing the interstices between them with cement or some other material. Lower down, whero the banks became soft, the race was protected at angles, or other places threatened by the fall of overhunging soil, by a breastwork of timber. The wooden flames consisted of boxes the same size as the race, itself, made of sawn planks and resting on timber tressels. The iron flumes were pipes of galvanised iron, large enough, it was estimated, to carry the flow of water; and hanging from wires stretched across the gullicp, at the proper altitude, for preserving the level. Such was the work by means of which the contractor, Mr Fraser, contrived to bring water from the gorge of the Pareora to Timaru, and to keep it running for a year. We have mentioned two circumstauces in connection with this matter—Firstly, that water ran along the race into Timaru up to December, 1875, the date when the contractor haDded the work over; and, secondly, that it never run since. How can these two be reconciled; or rather, how can the peculiar difference between them be ex plaiued? The simple fact is, we believe, that from the very beginning, the water-race was a mere toy, just sufficing to illustrate a theory ; bat not either on a large enough scale, or constructed substantially enough, to serve any practical purpose. The levels being accurately taken, and the principle of the work perfectly sound, the contractor succeeded triumphantly in bringing water to Timaru. The race being newly made, fine weather prevailing, and a large staff of men being still in his employ, he was further enabled to keep it in working condition for a year. As soon, however, as he handed it over and withdrew hie men from it, the race began rapidly to deteriorate, and within a very short time of the borough obtaining possession of it, it ceased altogether to answer its primary purpose. Ever since then it has been getting into worse and worse condition every day ; and at this moment we honestly • believe that we are not overstating facts, if we say that it is totally worthless except as indicating the levels. What, let ua enquire, is the present condition of its various parts? It is this. The race where it ruos over the surface of the country is trodden dowu, filled up, and overgrown to such an extent, that it would not hi easy to Hod it. were it not for the dense growth of thistles which have sprung up on the bank of clay thrown up immediately beside it, and which threaten to fill it up completely with vegetable matter. Where it has been carried along the side of hills, as at Mount Horrible, landslips aud the action of rains have in many places either filled it up, or carried all vestiges of it clean away. At those points which we have described as being protected by " timber breastwork." the upper bank has impinged on the race ; in some places j narrowing it to half its proper width, in j others converting it into a solid heap of c'ay and stones. The reason of this is that the ; "timber breastwork" was made of green \ cabbage trees cat on the spot, placed longitudinally one upon another against the bank, and secured by black birch pins, driven into the ground ! Our readers may not be disposed to swallow those cabbage trees quite readily; but we are prepared, \ nevertheless, to vouch for the strict accuracy of the above description. At numerous points the breastwork is there to answer for tself. The debris of the cabbage trees remains sodden and "squashed," while the rotten black birch pina still stick out of the earth as witnesses to the truth of our assertions. The iron fluming has bent, and twisted, and bellied, until water possessed with the strongest natural tendency to find its own level, could not reasonably be expected to go in at one end and come out again at the other. That across Briggs' Gully has suuk in the middle, wires and j all, so that it presents a graceful curve or I arc, and promises soon to reach the bottom j of the gully. A?, however, the flimsy sheets J of which it is made have burst open alto- j gether in several places, the alteration in the level is of little importance. We are assure;] by those who have often watched the process, that water poured into the higher end of the tube runs out and drops in glistering spray into the valley about ten f e- fi-riner on. The fluming across the Otipua at Fyfe's has been affected rather differcntlv. The wireshave held pretty well, but the tube has bent in lengths, thus affording a graphic representation of a huge boa-constrictor wriggling through the air. This, we may observe, improves the appearance of the fluming as a feature of the landscape; but it is not conducive to the rapid conveyance of running water. The wooden fluming is in no better j case. The boxes seem to bav.e teen i made of unseasoned timber o| any sort that came to hand ; for they are twisted and cracked and shrunk in all directions, and are totally incapable of holding water. The tressels, or substructure, was made, if we mistake not, from scrub growing in the neighborhood ; and the whole contrivance, where it is of any leDgth, sways in the wind, and threatens to go pieces altogether. The rock channel in the Gorge of the Pareora is also in a deplorable state. The paltry wqpicn shoots, intended to gapy the rWpn'tain tpr+ents from Mount Misery into the river, must have succumbed to the first fjO:h, and at those points the race is completely buried under a mass of rocks, boulders, shingle, earth, and rubbish. In other parts it is lost altogether in sand dri(ts. and accumulations of matter thrown over it by floods; and at several of the points where the wall was made up of boulders, these have Sali§ru"p,r been washed away—leaving either no water race at all, or else great holes in the side of it. Such of these patches as were completely secured with cement, have held their own; but others, where only clay was jammed between the stones, have simply vanished, The mouth of the water race is clear and open, though the level of the bottom has been altered by silt; and we are assured by an (ja witness that after the late floods, a strong current of water ran through it towards the head of the Pareora! As, however, a reef of rocks, the top. of which is not very far under water, shuts it off from the main channel of the river, it qaema probible that in veTy dry seasons no water whatever would enter the race. We have thus seen that from beginning to end the water race, which was taken over in working condition rather more than a year ago, is already in a state of utter dilapidation ; that, in fact, the £3OOO which it, cost has been almost entirely thrown away ; and that, before Timaru can be supplied with water from the Pareora, that

work must be done a second time, and in a very different manner. We shall presently examine the steps which have been taken to complete the system of waterworks, of which the race orms a part; in order that the public may know the exact position of the whole enterprise, and what prospects there are of its ultimate success.