WATER SUPPLY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 443, 10 December 1908, Page 3

WATER SUPPLY.

[to the editor I

Sir, —I see by the report of the Borough Council meeting in your paper, that the Council intend to put down a trial artesian well at the top of Main Street, near the flag staff. I would suggest that v before making such a costly experiment, due consideration should be given to the best means of supplying the township with a good supply of artesian water for daily use, and with sufficient pressure to be of service in case of lire, and Hot let us be content with the old b and primitive method of carting our own water, at a ruinous cost to any poor man. The first, or trial well, should be put down as a start of some complete system, so that if it is a success, the entire plan could be carried to its completion, and it should be put down near some hill, so as to lessen the cost of raising the water to a sufficient height to give it the necessary high pressure. I know that in America they advertise So,ooo gallon tanks, with an Soft iron stand, but I also know that there is, for example, a 30,000 gallon tank on a 30ft stand for the use of ! the railway at Kereru, which would be far cheaper, and if one of that size were erected on the Ferry Hill, at the other end of Main Street, it would give us a height of about Soft above the town level, which would give us sufficient pressure to put out any fire in the township without the aid of a fire engine, and what is even more important, it would give an unlimited supply of good ' water for daily use to everyone in the township. But to do that, the

well would have to be put down in a more convenient spot than where it is now proposed to put it, as at the spot selected the cost of raising the water would be more than doubled, and what is of more importance, it is not >ftkely that in that place the water will rise to the surface. We all know the water is beneath us, and we also know that there are three artesian wells in the township that do not rise to the level of Main Street, so that it is highly probable that the proposed well would be no better, especially as it would be put down in a locality several feet higher than the others, but even if there was, contrary to all expectations, to be a good flow above the ground, the idea of running it down the side channels and into concrete/tanks below the surface of f- the roads,' is quite behind the ‘ times, as every shower of rain ■' s Jfft>uld wash the mud and filth from /Sff the streets, converting them into nothing else than stinking mud holes, at a cost of about two thousand pounds, when, but for a few thousands more, the town and outskirts could be supplied with an up-to-date water service, both for fire and domestic use, and with water galore running on each side of the roads. Should this system

be carried out, and a fire break out, by the time the high - pressure tank is half emptied, by three lengths of hose playing on the fire, the pumping engineer could have the mains connected with the, engine, which would then pump directly on to the fire from a larger reservoir on a level with the well, which is the Blenheim scheme, and very efficient it is, as the force of water, coming direct from the pump is very great. Christchurch, although well supplied with water, has just initiated the same scheme, but of course at a much greater expense than we should have to spend,,they have two six inch wells giving about 400 gallons a minute, whereas one ordinary well "giving about 1,000 gallons an hour for the 24 hours, would give us more water than we should require for daily use. With regard to drainage, I scarcely think it is worth while wasting any more ink or artesian wells upon it, until some engineer has been consulted, as the drainage of Foxton will be a very expensive problem to solve, for. the one place where the levels converge is in the triangle at the bottom of Main, street, and when it is col-

lected in a reservoir there at a sufficient depth below the street to give the drains the necessary fall, the question is what to do .with it ? The Shone system of

compressed air may be the best, .but the cost would be enormous. .1 should say that a system of septic

4anks would be the best, each one draining a separate level, but - they are like the microbes, fresh air and good clear water . "is bad for them, so water is apnetrer allowed to flow into them, and the saime applies to a pumping f. scheme, as it increases the cost of pumping.—l am, etc., |V' . . . Aquarius.