NAPIER'S YESTERDAYS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 10, 27 January 1937, Page 11

NAPIER'S YESTERDAYS

Charles

Price

BY

NAPIER'S WATER SUPPLY

XIY. Napier with its extensive subterrannean water supply, is one of the most fortunately situated townJa in the Dominion, but in the very early days, notwithstanding that the small town was almost surrounded by the sea, water for drinking purposes was very scarce. Most of the water so used was saved in tanks, motet houses having one or two of these. In the summer^ however, when the rainfall was not heavy tanks quickly ran dry with the demands made upon thexa. In some parts of the town small wells had been sunk, and these generally held a fairly good reserve supply of water, though in summer these also became dry at times. Thetee wells were usually sank at the foot of a MU, or at least ner the foott, so as to get the seepage of the MU as the water percolated through. The water was raised from the weUs by means of a rope and windlass, and it was carried away in buckets. Two .buckets were generally used at a time, a frame, sometimes a big hoop from a caJlsk, sometimes a square frame, being used to keep the buckets from striking against the legs of the person earrying them. This is an easy way of earrying the buckets. In some of the flat portions of the town, however, it was considered useuess to sink weUs of tMs description, also on the tops of the hiUs, and in the summer the rain^ater supply had ,to be eked out with water carried in ■casks and emptied into' the tanks. One carrier, Mr. P. Barry, father of the founders of the firm of Barry Brols., Ltd., had ^uite a big business during the summer in supplying householders with water. TheJ pnce for caisk (hogshead size) varied for the hUls or flats, but worked out on the average at about 3/-, I think. Most of this water came, I believe, from an artesian well sunK m the vieinity of the "White Swan Brewery. After a few years other artesian weUs were sunk in various parts of the flat, one being on the present site of the Sunshine Brewery, another close to where the Terminus Hotel is now, and on a site - used, I fancjr, for Napier 's first soap worktt. The sinking of these wells, however, demonstrated the fact that Napier had a reservoir of fresh wataer of some considerable size, not very far below the surface. The close proximity of the town to the sea, and the seepage which was known to take place through the shingle clo'3e to the seafront had hardly prepared people to find this reservoir of fresh water so close handy. It was felt that if this subterranean reservoir could be tapped at any particular point and the water brought to the surface in a large quantity and reticulated through the town, Napier 's water problem would be solved. Experimental bores were put down, and it was found that a splendid supply could be obtained from a bore near Munro street and from tMs a splendid flow could be obtained. One of the first acta of the Napier Borough Council after the town had been constituted a borough, was to inaugurate a scheme for a water supply of this sort. The borough 's engineer, Mr. 'F. S. Peppercorn, drew up a scheme which. was eventuaUy put into operation, and the construction of a reservoir in Dalton street, and the reticulation of the streets .with water pipes wals begun. The scheme was a great sncc.ess,| though. ata flrst some trouble was ex-

perienced with vegetation of some kind underground wMch sometimes choked the pipes, also with a quantity of animalculae wMch came up through the bore and into the waterpipes at times. It happened, too, occasionally that the water was very ditscoloured when it first came out from the tapa. The presence of the animalculae, which were not by any means invisible to the naked eye, in fact, sometimes they were the size of mosquitos and resembled miniature unicorns, caused many people to refrain from nsing any of the water for drinking purposes, until it had been filtered, a very wise precaution. The presence of these animalculae in the drinking water formed the subject of an illustration by a temperance orator who gave a lecture one evening in the old Protestant Hall, as it was called, a small building in Tennyson street, which at the time of the earthquake of 1931, was being used as a motor-car painting shop. The lecturer had on a table two glasses, one being filled with water, the other empty. In the glass containing water could be seen even from the back of the hall & large number of very lively things swimming about and looking anything but pleasant to swallow. The lecturer drew attention to the fact that in the water these tMngs were evidently in their element and quite lively. He then caref ully poured the water through blotting paper into a cup, thus leaving the lively little creatures in an otherwise empty glass. Pouring into the glass some brandy until the ^glass was about half full, he waited a ishort while and then pointed 'out that the animalculae were all dead, or at least they appeared to be, and the lecturer said they were. He en« forced his argument against alcohol by pointing out that it had the same deleterious effect in the course of time on human beings as it had on the smaller creatures. Alcohol was a poi* son and it was a destroyer, so he said, Not all of his audience wei# impresa« ed as he wished them to be, for I overheard one man remark that he would take his brandy neat in future. It took some little time to get the town water supply as clear as was wished, but this was eventually accomplished. The question of a sufficient force of water to enable it to be effective for fire-prevention purposes was at firlst rather a serious difficulty. The pressure from the main, when fed from the reservoir in Dalton street, was at times hardly enough to send a jet of water to th-e top of a single-storey building. Eventually, a reservoir was constructed at the coraer of Cameron road, so that a supply might be available for fire-prevention purposes, and the force obtained by gravitation would be sufficient to send the jets of water up to the top of the highelsi buildings in the town. 1 As time went on th© need of a water supply for eanitation as well as fo» other purposes became acute. other bores were sunk, more powerful ptimping machinery installed, and Napier attained a position of having an all-the-year-round water supply, .which W'as sufficient, with care, to provide for all the Tequirements of the population through the driest summer. And thus Napier is in the happy position of being able to supply all that its present population might re.quire should everybody decide to go on the water waggon.