COMPENSATION COURT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 14 February 1907, Page 2

COMPENSATION COURT

SECOND DAY'S JMIOCEKDIMiS. 1 COl'llT FAILS TO AGUEE. t i The Compensation Court resumed at the Comthouse oil Wednesday morning in the case of the Jtawera Electrical Company versus the Kltham Borough Council. Air Justice Cooper occupied the Bench, supported by Alessrs D. Peat and B. JJive, Dr. Findlay, for the respondent borough, proceeded to call evidence. lienry \V. (Jliinie, civil engineer, said he had been connected with the designing -of the company's and the Council's works. J.t was possible "to get bf)o gallons a minute out. of the nine inch pipe into Kltiuun it' tliero was a head of 100 lbs. Jle had taken an exact record of tne amount of water taken, and the average was 210 gallons per minute. About 12,000 square feet of streets in Kltham were asphalted, and lie believed the surface was impervious. The water from the motors ran over asphalt and into the stream in a few minutes. lie had measured the oulilow into the stream. From the two septic tanks 10U gallons a minute- went back— ou gallons was returned from the bacon factory. There was a continuous stream of water from the mains running down the side-chmiuels direct into the stream, amounting to 30 gallons a minute. Then the Council had subsoil drains to carry oil' water met with in laying down the drainage system; from two of these 4 ii;|cli drains 20 gallons a minute ran into the river, and from stono drains he ittTought there would be about 13 gallons a minute. To llis Honor: This water would have found its way into the river without the drains. To Dr. Findlay: Tiiore were in Klthani over six miles of metailed streets, gravelled footpaths, anil water-tables. .More water went into the river from Kltham as a town than from Kltham in its bush state. Without the town not a third of the rainfall would reach the river; the rest would be absorbed in some way. He had known 1 ilc river for the past 27 years, and had visited it frequently in designing the Company's waterworks and the Kltham waterworks. lie thought, in fact, he was sure, tiTat Kltham borough was putting more water into the river than was taken out at the intake, it ! had not all'eeted the llow in tiie slightest. The horse power available at the I power hous;\ according to his report to the Company, was from ttOO to 350 horse power. Jle considered the company was only using a third of the power available, and they could go for six or seven years before they used up the present source of power, conditionally on the district going ahead as it isas done. With six inches of water running over the weir from 100 to 170 hoi's:; power was running to waste. The company would have to treble its present business before exhausting the available source of pojwer, aud that increase could only come from great expansion of the district aud extension of the lines to other townships. The river wa,s lower in 11)05 than he had known it at any other time. Cross-examined by Air Cotter: He agreed that Cue value of the eleclric lighting plant must be gauged on the power available in the driest period of the year. Knowing the nature of the ground, he could safely say that two-thirds of tliiy water _ would be restored to the river. The soil was light, porous, sandy with little pebbles of pumice. The Avater stored in the company's dam, if the v( ' v were stopped, would keep t he machinery running for sixteen hours. He hal measured the river at the powerhouse in April, 1005, the driest month of the year. The llow was 1800 ft, giving U7 effective horse-power at the works, without the weir. Kq examined: Heavy dew*, even 111 ! the driest part of the year, obviated tiie necessity for artificial watering of garden's in Kltham. Charles Henry Lawn, draughtsman I in the lloads Department, with expert knowledge of underground draining, who had superintended the Eltiiaui borough loan works for Air Climie for two years, knew there was a steady llow of water into the river at Kltham •from underground drains. He agreed substantially with the evidence of the previous witness;" John Stewart Alurray, assistant civil engineer, stated that he had measured the water llowing over the company's weir from 7.15 to 7.10 on l ALonday evening, the average depth was six inches.

liichard L. Mcstayer. civil engineer, Willi over 40 year's almost continuous practice ill water supply, drainage, anil sewage works in Kiiglan.l, South Australia, New SSontH Wales, fourteen years in .New Zealand, said lie had computed that M 1,000 gallons a day was tliu must water that Lliliani could ever be expected lo use. lie had lested Mr Cliinic's gauging of tin? water used, and satisfied himself that tele ligures gMn substantially correct. lie inivdc the average quantity 20(i gallons per minute. The general rule was that a town would return in sewage as much water as it would take out in its water service, excepting all 'seaport towns, of course, lie believed lillhain returned to' lhe river as much as it took oul. '.there was no reason to make the town ail exception to the rill;'. lie contended that lhe formation of streets ami drains, and the roofs, had benefited the stream by about 50 gallons per minute, and his positive opinion was that tins waterworks had not appreciably altered the. quantity of water going down the stream. Cross,examined: The principle of a town returning all the water taken from a stream applied to all times or to any time. There might lie a very slight loss in hot weather, but lie had not l'ouud it so in his experience, fie was speaking from actual tests made by himself in Adelaide on several oe- [ elisions in the dry season. To His Honor: There was no si reel, sprinkling by earl or otherwise in Flthain. The only street-watering was the regular stream sent down the side channels. Kxamination continued: About four veal's ago lie had been appointed in conjunction with Mr Ferguson to report on ithe Wellington water supply, and there was very little dill'erence between the amount of water running through the main and the amount of sewer outfall. The test was not a satisfactory one. The sewer outfall was the greater, but one sewer was carrying sub-.soil water. The. "Vontury" meter was not the only meter that could give an exact record of water. The mete* used l>v Mr Cliniio in Hthani was the same as used in all water supplies with which lie had been connected.

tin the court resinning, tin; respondents called W. J. Tristram, towneierK at J'Utliam, who said he had known tlie I lawera Flectrie Light liili was being jiroinoted. The llorough Council did not look carefully illio the matter.

Dr. Findlay briefly addressed the court, onnliiiiii" himself to the fuels, licl'oic Hie claimant, lie urged.could obtain compensation from this court they must o-lii]>lisli that tliev cilncr now or within some reasonable period had. or would, suller damage to real estate. [Jo lUs Honor if I 1 -. : T>-«n shown. alter the evidence of TVI.r Climie an.l .Mr Mestayer, thai Ihe liormigh was lining damage or would do dam age tn ilii' company. The expert willlesscs fur 'ihe claimant Mill'ered from lack of lime in which to collect .sullieienl data, mid liieir evidence could licit lie weighed api ins I. I hat of Mr Climie, with his intimate knowledge of I lie locality and the conditions obtainiup; there. Mr Metayer was pre em inenlly Ihe tiesl expert in I lie colony oil lhe.se mallei's, and in 'Hit l lace ol

his evidence that the stream had mil lii'. l a aU'eclcd by the borough water- I works, his Honor could mil direct that a sum uf lnoney lie paid into (lie pockets -of claimant company, at the expense of the people of Wll'iain. Mr Cotter ipioted several compensa. lion cases heard in the Englitdi courls and said he fell that the court could reasonably l.e satisfied 'llial the opin icnis given I'V Climie and .Mestaycr would not. hear Ihe (est. of comnioiiseiise. t|. seemed absolutely absiinl. as a reasonable individual, to say that if water were abstracted from the stream and then distributed broadcast over land in ordinary and extraordinary supply, thai llic'wholc quantity would ;ro back, and that there would he lin material diminution in ihe llow ol I lie river. 'Messrs Stewart and Mclcalf wen' just as competent as Mr Mestayer to give an opinion in this Ho submitted that it was im I

material whether the company wisln-u io use tins 4-horse power to-morrow, or in two, three, live or eight yea is time, but the Court was to fix an ■nil' nut to Ik; paid to the company I'oi thr potential supply lost to them. He sin uitti'd thai the company was like iy, then, to a material Joss, ami tli: i Ci-IOU was a true estimate of the

Atter a rci ii'riiirnt of half nil hour. | • lie Pre.-idenii announced that the ' -'onrt iiad been unable to agree oil tin' -w.i poinU it had considered, viz., (lj rthut amount of horse power had been lo.st to Hie company. and (2) wiial amount should be awarded. There lM * in v- iH) possibility of an a-reement by a majority of the Court on those points, lie would discharge I In- as.-e> soirecommending the payment o] U-ii 12s to -Mr Peat, the claimant's assessor, who had had to appear on liv: occasions, and ;Cil 2s to AJr Dive, M set-sor lor tin: respondent, Jl.i, s Honoi announced that a fresh Court would to be constituted with a fre«h President and fresh assessors, to hear Hi'' case de novo. He wa* sorry thai the Court had been unable to make ;u award, Iml he was Jiot surprise;!, foi th.-re had been an extraordinary con Hit! of evidence. Thu Court rose.