Water For Foxton.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3493, 7 March 1905, Page 3

Water For Foxton.

TESTING THE ARTESIAN .SUPPLY. A STEP FORWARD. A special meeting of the Borough Council was held last evening to consider. the question of taking steps preliminary to initiating a water supply scheme for the town. There were present the Mayor (Mr G. A. Simpson), and Crs J. Symons, 0. E. Austin, B, Spelman, B. G. Gower, and S. H, Baker.

There were also the members of the committee appointed at a public meeting held last month—Messrs Nyc, Frankland, Hennossy, Moore, and Noonan.

The Mayor briefly explained the object of the meeting and called upon Mr Moore to read the report which had been prepared by the committee, as follows :

“ The committee appointed by the public meeting at Foxton on Wednesday, February 22nd, 1905, to consider means of obtaining a water supply for the borough and report to the council, inspected the hill near the railway line on the following day with a view to ascertaining its suitability for the purpose. A meeting was held on Friday, February 24th, at 7.30 p.m., when it was resolved as follows : “That the council be recommended to obtain permission from Mr John Robinson to make a trial bore at the foot of the hill at the back of his house, at a spot about four chains from the railway line on the south side of the hill, and to get a competent artesian well sinker to give an estimate of the cost of boring from too feet to boo feet, and to employ him or any other competent well sinker for the purpose ; the council to include in its agreement with the well sinker that it be optional with the council to cease to go on with the work when it thinks proper, and to be liable for the cost only so faiqas he has gone at the time of stopping work ; that the expense of the boring be paid out of the general rate; and that the council be informed that the committee is of opinion that, if a good supply of water is obtained, the farther operations should be in general on the lines which Mr George Nvc has described in his letter to the 'Manawatu Herald of February 21st, and that the total expense'would be somewhere about the figure which Mr Nye there stated.”

In reply to a question by Cr Austin Mr Nve said the esiimated cost of a complete scheme fo supply about 200 houses would be approximately /3000. Or Baker suggested the suitability of a brick well or wells, and Mr Nye said such a well might be used to supplement the artesian supply by storing water drained from the surrounding area. If a good flow of water were struck a four or six-inch pipe would supply the town with sufficient water, and pumped up into a tank- on the hill it would prove ample for the town. Cr Baker inquired as to the suitability of the lakes on Messrs Robinson’s property, but these contained, it was pointed out, only surface drainage.

Mr Henncssy thought the purpose of the meeting—to discuss the question of putting down an artesian bore—should be kept in view ; it was no use to talk now of what was to be done with the water.

The Mayor agreed that it would be well to prove that the water was available before going into details as to how it should be used. After some further desultory discussion the following resolution, moved bv the Mayor and seconded by Cr Austin, was carried; “That the council trv to acquire from Mr Robinson the necessary land for a trial bore to be driven to procure water for the borough ot Foxton." It was decided that the works committee interview Mr Robinson and en. deavour to get the desired permission,