THE VISIT OF MR. CLARKE, C.E.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5329, 26 April 1878, Page 5

THE VISIT OF MR. CLARKE, C.E.

Last year the Government of New South Wales requested the President of the Institute of Engineers to recommend an engineer to report on the water supply for Sydney and the drainage of that city. Mr. Clarke was nominated, andin clue course arrived in Sydney. A number of sohemeswhichhadbeeusuggested, many of them by amateurs, were presented for his consideration, and he was occupied until last June in examining the city and surrounding country, and in preparing his report. Finally, he recommended that the sewage should be discharged into the ocean, because there was no land available, at anything like reasonable rates, on which it could be utilised. Mr. Clarke next prepared schemes of water supply tor Maitland, Morpeth, the mining townships, and Newcastle, the last being a large undertaking. At the request of the Queensland Government be visited Bathurst and advised as to a scheme for providing water supply for that city, and afterwards he went to Orange and Gonlbnrn for a like purpose. Next Mr. Clarke was engaged by the South Australian Government to visit that colony, and he laid out a scheme for draining Adelaide and for an improved water supply, and also submitted a plan for. draining Port Adelaide. Then he visited Hobarton, and reported as to a storage reservoir, deemed necessary to largely increase the supply of water. Alter this Mr. Clarke came to Christchurch, where he reported on several schemes, and submitted one for draining Christchurch. Next he came to Wellington, and from this he will go to Auckland.

People are very anxiously looking out for Mr. Clarke’s report on the drainage of Wellington ; but no detailed information as to what will he recommended can be given until the report is in the hands of the Council. This much may be said : The water carriage system will be adopted; there will be a pumping station, the drainage from the lower levels will be pumped, while that from the higher levels will be led by gravitation to the tunnel; the sewage will be utilised by being discharged on to sandy soil, probably on the isthmus between Lyell and Evans Bays. As some misstatements have been made as to the value of the surveys made by Mr. t Olimie, C. 8., it may be well to state that the I levels of the streets taken by that gentleman 1 and supplied to the Council have, by the work done under Mr. Clarke’s directions, been proved to be correct. Mr. Clarke requires more information than Mr. Cliraie was paid to provide, and is obtaining levels of the laud between the various streets, and getting data for a complete plan of the city, to be executed in a style that will be expensive but will be of great and lasting advantage in many ways. The cost of this work alone may be set down at £ISOO. Mr. Clarke is strongly in favor of having sewers carried through private property wherever that would he the best line to lay them in, and holds the opinion that the compensation to be paid for doing so will be small, as the injury caused to wooden buildings would be almost nil, and there would be no permanent annoyance caused. It would not be necessary to take any land, and property . holders would suffer no real inconvenience or loss by having a sewer taken even under their houses. The full report will probably be completed under a week, and in the meantime people wishing for further information must needs wait.

It may well be imagined that numerous suggestions for novel and impracticable schemes have been submitted to Mr. Clarke in the various cities he has visited, and the following may be taken as a sample of the mode in which persons leave most important matters out of their calculations. A proposition for Wellington was to have two barges constructed, into one of which each day’s sewage should be emptied. When full the barge would be towed well out to the Heads and its contents discharged. There is this drawback, besides many others, to such a plan. The barge, if 40ft. wide and 10ft. deep, would have to be just 1000 ft. long to receive all the sewage for one day of a town having 50,000 inhabitants. Comment ou this is scarcely needed. As to the sewage being a nuisance when discharged on to soil, Mr. Clarke proves this to be a fallacy, provided a proper method be adopted, and due care taken. At Croydon, in England, where the drainage was wretchedly bad for a long time, the water-carriage system was introduced, and the sewage utilized ou a farm which was selected because it was in a thinly populated district; but people were not in the least deterred from settling near the outfall of the system, and they experienced no inconvenience whatever fr. m the discharge of the sewage. This quite upsets popular ideas on the subject, and it is a consolation to know that such is the fact.

Mr. Clarke has been specially retained by the City Council to report as to the best means for giving a large and permanent supply of water to the city. To-day he will go to Pukuratahi with Mr, Baird, tho City Engineer, in order to inspect the country there, and between that and the city, to ascertain the most suitable river, or part of a river, from which to bring a supply. Mr. Baird’s intimate acquaintance with that portion of the district will prove highly advantageous, for during his term of office as Provincial Engineer he became thoroughly well acquainted with the lay of the country in the Hutt Valley and along the course of its tributaries. It is fortunate that we have a city engineer so well qualified to cooperate with Mr.. Clarke.