“WATER TO BURN”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1938, Page 7

“WATER TO BURN”

MASTERTON BOROUGH SUPPLY’ UNSATISFACTORY. NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT STRESSED. “I am not satisfied with the water supply in this town,” observed the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, when addressing last night’s meeting of electors. “This town is not satisfactorily watered,” he added, “and the present system is not sufficient nor stable and must be tackled as soon- as we are satisfied that nothing can come from boring.” Mr Jordan said Masterton was surrounded by large quantities of water he would almost they had it to burn. At present, however, the supply was precarious, as the intake was from a flooding river, which was not wise. He believed there was a source higher up where the intake would be immune from flooding and which would give a greater pressure and, incidentally, more water for hosing.

Mr Jordan went on to refer to endeavours recently made to augment the borough water supply by artesian bores. Some £2OO had been spent, but although they had gone down about 300 ft they had not yet obtained the supply they had hoped for. “If we cannot do better than that,” Mr Jordan remarked, “we will have to go and get the water from where it is—in the river. It may prove expensive, but it would be well worth while.”

Dealing briefly with the subject of water meters, Mr Jordan said they had been forced out in other towns and had resulted in the consumption of water being reduced by 50 per cent. A meter was installed in a property in Masterton where water was used very largely, and the re-ords showed that from January 1G to January 31, 1935, the consumption was 26,000 gallons and from February 1 to February S' it was 15,000 gallons. That was his argument on which he based his opinion that meters would have a substantial effect on the consumption of water in the borough.