THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1792, 18 November 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1879.

The City Council last night had before it a question of very great importance to the city, and, to our mind, failed to deal with it in the proper manner. "We refer to the subject brought up in a late report of the surveyor, viz., the partial failure of the artesian supply to the tanks used for fire prevention purposes. It must be remembered that we have as yet had little or no dry weather. Indeed, the rainfall for the season of the year has been exceptionally large. That our supply of water should show indications of failure, under what may be considered favorable circumstances, points to the immediate necessity of some steps being taken. But what then have the Council done, always keeping in view the fact that, in case of fire, we are totally dependent, in a large portion of the city, on the water afforded by the tanks supplied by the artesian wells ? The surveyor had previously been instructed to have the wells cleaned out as an experiment to see whether the flow would thereby be improved. This was done; and last night he reported that the improvement was but slight. The works committee brought up a recommendation that the wells should be sunk to the lower stratum with a view to increasing the supply, which recommendation, together with the addition of a reference to the insurance companies for co-operation, was adopted by the Council. So far so good. Of course, if the present supply, as seems to bo the case, is insufficient, the wisest course would be to sink lower. But —and here is where the Council hare made the error in not at once facing the whole position—it is utterly useless so far as fire prevention purposes go, to have an increased flow of water if the tanks are not proportionately increased in size. The flow even of the proposed wells—if they prove successful—with the present sized tanks will add little or nothing to their efficiency, or prevent their being pumped out as quickly almost as now. What is required is increased room for storage of water, so that the steam fire engines may be enabled to draw for a longer period than at present upon the tanks without exhausting them. This is just what the Council failed to see, though the Surveyor, in answer to a question, stated that the proposed new wells would not add more than five minutes' supply for the engines. It is no use blinking the fact over and over again reiterated by the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, that the water supply of Christchurch at present is alarmingly inadequate to cope with anything like a serious fire. To wait for the promised water supply scheme is out of the question. Even if anything tangible were now ready to go before the ratepayers, it would be at least a couple of years before the scheme could be brought it operation. Therefore we may at once put that matter aside. The question then comes, what is to be done to supply the want. To sink wells to the lower stratum without providing increased storage capacity for the water thus obtained is simply a useless expenditure, and it therefore seems to us that the Council are bound to take the question of enlarging the present tanks into their most serious consideration as early as possible. The cost of the proposed four wells is estimated at something like £BO each, so that we have an expenditure of between £3OO or £4OO which will not put us in one whit a better position to cope with a fire than we are now unless larger tanks are provided. Thus it seems to us incontestible that the two works, namely, sinking the proposed wells, and the providing of larger tanks must be carried out simultaneously to be of any practical use, and the sooner the Council recognise the fact the better, If they can get the Insurance Association to join them in the work the strain on the city finances will be the easier; but whether they do or not, the work will have to be done, or we shall find ourselves some day powerless to cope with a conflagration which may entail the most serious losses on the community at large.