UNDERGROUND STREAM

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 328, 8 January 1937, Page 4

UNDERGROUND STREAM

BUILDER’S PROBLEM. Search Locally For Solid Foundations. One of the difficulties that building contractors are some, times faced with in the business area of Stratford is the encountering of one of several underground streams whiteh pass bet. ncath Broadway and find on outlet pt Victoria Parfc lake.

Calculations in respect to foundations have to be revised and these trickling waters may cause the loss of Valuable t>ne and the expenditure of a subsantial sum of money. In the early days of the settlement a raupo covered swarmp extended from the saleyards in Miranda Street to Victoria Park. On both sides of the main thoroughfare these streams are in evidence, but the land between has been built upon and it is only when the excavation begins that an unstable floor is discovered.

Just why the town was laid out on a portion, of a swamp is now only a matter for conjecture. A reason advanced is that there was probably no great evidence of running streams when the site of the town was covered in bush. Old residents can recall the sight of ducks swimming on areas now covered by modern buildings, but either their memory has beep at fault or the course of the streams has changed in the intervening years as in some recent jobs water has been met in places not previously recorded. Before the foundations were put down for the new premises being erected for the Farmer’s Co-op. Socity, conisderable boring was done to locate the direction of the underground stream which continues beneath the Plaza Theatre and finds its way by a circuitous routs to Victoria Park. Silver Pine piles were driven to provide the foundations, one 'being put down to a depth of 47 feet.