WAIMEA-STREET SEWER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 80, 4 April 1874, Page 2

WAIMEA-STREET SEWER.

To the Editor op the Evening Mail. Sir, — As there has been and is so much talk about the Waimei-Street sewer, we think it would not be amiss if the ratepayers were to know a few of the facts; For instance: — Mr Youngor furnishes plans for the construe! ion of a sewer in Wairnca Street; the vertical section of the plan shows that the drain ii to have 9ins fall from Hardy-street crossing to the outlet; the plim shows beginning from the outlet, that the bottom of the drain was to be 6ft 9ins from crown of road for the first chain ; eft 9ins for the second chain; 6ft 9ins thir.l chain; 6ft lOina for the fourth chain; 6ft 9ins for the filth chain; 6ft Bins for 'he sixth chain; 6ft 7ins for the seventh chain; 6ft 6ins for the eighth chain ; 6ft 6ins for the ninth chain; 6ft sins for the tenth chain; 6ft 4ins for the eleventh chain ; 6ft sins for the twelfth chain; 6ft 6ina for the thirteenth chain; 6ft 6ins for tho fourteenth chain. The fourteenth chain is at Hardy- street crossing; had Mr Younger carried out the eewer according to the depth given in hia plan, he vrould have had I ft. s|in. space from the top ot the sewer to the underside of the railway b<rp, as the drnin, including the top and the bottom brick, is or ly five feet and half an inch deep, but he haa ordered and allowed the contractors to go down from the crown of the road to the bottom of the drain five feet deep for all these 14 chains, and in fome places even less than five feet. Does Mr Younger call this adhering to his plans ? Surely Mr Younger can deduct five feet from sis feat nine inch's. Ought he not to have said to himself : '■ If I only go five feet deep from the crown ot the sewer instead of cix feet nine inches, I lose all the nine inches of fall the drain was to have, and the water will have to lun up hill one foot. He might say : Such thoughts did not come into his mind, but we know th» very first d»y that the bottom brick was laid, two of the con'ractors, Bleeher and Dement, warned Mr Younger of his misake. Mr Dement even spoke to some of the members of the Board complaining that tho contractors were favored by only going five fe?t deep from the crown of th* roid to the cottom of the sewer instead of 6 feet 9 inches, but found no hearing. Could 1 not Mr Younger have carried out the sewer tolas plans? and could he not have gone 1 loot 9 inches deeper at the outlet? We cay ' • Yes he could," because the bottom of the two old culverts leading from the Pot-Office corner to the outlet are moie than two feet deeper than the bottom of Mr Youngcr's newly-built sewer. The eaii culvert from the Post- Qffice corner to the outlet has for some jcara past carried away! all the water that cms down this way. The specification says that the sewer shall be bu It according to the plans. But in Mr Younger's newly-built eewer nearly every hdlf chain haß its own level; oae half chain is perhaps dead level, Bnd of the two adjoining half chains, the one of which has its fall to the outlet, the other to the inlet, and so forth. If the ratepayers would send some trustworthy 'person into the sewer to report how much water there is standing' in it, and to take truo levels from hnlf chain to half chiin, the public would be able to_. come to a conclusion whether Mr Younger has had the sewer properly constructed or nob. We, the undersignod, are willing to go into ' the sewer and take true levels (on behalf of the ratepayers, free of cost), if the Board will appoint two persons to accompany us. We are, &c , J. Harris, B. Tibblb. . Nelson, April 3.