THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2036, 2 September 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1880.

We are glad to find that the City Council are at last beginning to recognise the necessity which we have so often impressed npon them of increased facilities for fire prevention. It will be remembered that at the last meeting of the Council it was resolved to bore again to the second stratum in "Victoria street. It seems to us that unless the Council intend to follow up this boring for water by increasing the holding. capacity of the tanks it will be useless, because, though the supply may be there, the means of utilising it is not. Thereis another point in connection with this matter which we should like to notice. Councillor Lambert, no doubt in all good humour, spoke of the advisableness of the works committee leaving the contractor to put the well down as he might think fit. Of the wisdom of this advice there can be no doubt. The experiments of the works committee and their scientific aide-de-camp have cost the ratepayers nearly £IOO, and this is paying rather dearly for the pleasure of seeing dynamite cartridges put into a well, which only block it up instead of clearing it. So far as we can learn the total loss of this money might have been averted had the scientific assistance which was at the I disposal of the Council outside their own body been made use of. But in their wisdom the Works Committee —who, despite all the Chairman may say, were the moving spirits with regard to the well —thought otherwise, and now all the work has to be done over again, and the money already expended is useless. The scientific member of the Council has recently been lecturing on " A Drop of Water," and it is to be hoped that he will be as successful as he appears to have been on that occasion when next he essays to find a large stream. But, as we have said, there is a good deal in the remark of Councillor Lambert, and we hope that the Works Committee will not again dabble in matters which are considerably beyond them from a certain point of view. The Council should accept the tender at the risk of tho contractor, leaving it to him to carry out tho work as he thinks best. It may be, though we doubt it, that the cost will be somewhat more than by day labor, but it will be a saving in the end. We shall at least have something to show for tho money, though probably it may deprive some of the Councillors of the delight of posing as learned pundits. But however they may decide it, and even should the experiment be successful, the increased supply of water thus gained will be practically useless to us unless means are provided for stowing it, so that it may be used to advantage. Thus it seems to us that the attention of the Council should bo directed, contemporaneously with the sinking of additional wells, to the provision of tanks of increased size.