WATER FOR MOTIVE POWER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 17 September 1880, Page 2

WATER FOR MOTIVE POWER.

At the meeting of the Borough Council last evening, the question of the charge for water for motive power oropped up when the water supply bye-laws came up for consideration. At the request of the Council, Mr. Crawshaw stated that at Home the prices of water engines were as follows:—§-in., L2 10s; i-in., L 3 Is; f-in., L 3 15s; 1-in., L 4 8s; lj-in., L 5 lis; l£in.,LG7s; 2-in., L 7 13s; L 9 15s. The last is capable of passing 10,000 gallons of water per hour. Mr, Conypra, Oonmusijioner of Railways, wrptp—Qui- Engineer (Mr. Lowe) has reoontly been in communication with you on the subject of a supply of water to tho locomotive sheds at Oarnaru, and you! informed that officer that the ordinary charge for water WQy}d bp Is o,d per 10p0 gallqnt), b»t this price, I may inform you, would jsp prohibitory jfojp the quantity we j should require; and it would pay us better j to continue to wa,ter for purposes. I observe, however, that your charge for ordinary water- engines ia Lls per horse-

power per annum, and a calculation has been made, which shows that we should not consume much more than a four-horse-power engine would require, while the charge at Is Gd per 1000 gallons would be enormously in excess of the charge for a four-horse-power engine. I have therefore to propose that we be charged for the water we require at a rate equal to that which you .vould charge for ordinary water engines, which may be easily arrived at by a simple calculation." The following letter from Messrs. Anderson Brothers was also read :—" We again ask you to reconsider your offer of L 7 10s per h.p. per annum for twenty h.p. of water for a Hour mill iu Harbor-street. We arc prepared to show you in figures that the motive power in our Dunedin mill with steam does not exceed this amount, and we have little doubt but that we can have motive power by steam in Oamaru in two or three years' time—when coals are cheaper—at the same rate as we now have in Dunedin. Messrs. J. and T. Meek's steam power may cost a little more than L 7 10s, but we are quite confident it does not exceed LlO per h.p. for day and night work. From what we can learn, Messrs. J. and T. Meek state that Lls ■is a reasonable rate. At the same time were you to offer it to them at LlO per h.p. they would not accept it; at least this is our opinion. As we before stated, we are prepared to leave the price open to be settled with others. We are paying from the time we commence use of it at the same rate as others pay on an average for milling purposes. You will be acting wisely in reconsidering your proposed scale of charges, as we are confident you will not let the water at such a figure for milling purposes." After discussion the proposed bye-laws were referred to the incoming Waterworks Committee for revision. The letters quoted above were also referred to the Committee.