MASTERTON'S WATER SUPPLY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9042, 29 January 1908, Page 5

MASTERTON'S WATER SUPPLY.

AN INADEQUATE PRESSURE. A SOMEWHAT SERIOUS OUTLOOK. The most noticeable feature in connection with the fire in the yard of Mr J. C. Ewington's foundry, yesterday afternoon, was? the absence of an adequate pressure of water from the borough mains. The usual system of concentrating a\j the water from the different mains in the town into the main in the street in which a fire occurs, was adopted, and despite this, the water from the one threequarter-inch jet that was used barely reached the height of fifteen feet, and was more like an ordinary trickle than the force which one expects to come from a hose used for fire purposes. Again, when the alarm.pf fire was raised, only two peals of the fire bell was given, and these were barely heard in the town. The reason for this was that the pressure of water was totally insufficient to work the bell. Captain Jenkins, of the Fire Brigade, stated to an "Age" reporter that yesterday's pressure of water could not have suppressed a fire in an ordinary dwelling house without the services of the Jubilee engine. Even if the engine were used, sufficient water could only have been obtained to supply two jets on a building in Queen Street. He dreaded to think of the consequences if a fire broke out in the centre of the town. The Mayor, when interviewed on the subject, said there was plenty of water coming into the reservoir, but the main coming into the town along the Upper Plain Road was too small to give a propar pressure. This he had pointed out all along, but noth ing could be done until the extension of the water supply now under consideration was taken in hand. An examination of the gauge at the Central Fire Station, yesterday afternoon, showed that the pressure averaged between 251bs and 281bs to the square inch. While the hose was being used at ttie fire, the pressure dropped as low as 20lbs. Under ordinary summer conditions the gauge ought to show double the present indicated pressure.