WATER SUPPLY
MASTERTON LOAN PROPOSAL
CONCRETE LINING OF MAINS,
SCHEME OUTLINED TO RATEPAYERS.
“I would like to urge on all ratepayers the necessity of recording their votes at the poll next Wednesday.” said the Mayor. Air T. .Jordan. at a meeting of ratepayers and others interested, held in the Social Hall last evening, at which proposals for the raising of a loan of £.10.500 for the cleaning and concrete-lining of the water mains from the reservoir to rhe borough were explained.
“It is the first stage of the journey 'to the gorge intake.” Mr Jordan added, “and to provide the town with an efficient water supply.” He pointed out that those eligible to vote were ratepayers and their husbands or wives, as the case might be. There was an attendance of 35 at the meeting. After expressing his disappointment at the small attendance, Mr Jordan went on to give an outline of what had been done in the past in providing a water-supply for Masterton. He pointed out that any restrictions on the use of water that had been imposed had been put on in the interests of all and he regretted that restrictions had been necessary. The present loan proposal, he said, was the first one to be placed before the ratepayers since he had been chairman of the council during the past 15 years. The council had raised loans by other means in accordance with the statutes, but it could not always do that. Mr Jordan’ went on to refer to the attempt by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to locate artesian water in Masterton, which project cost the borough £3OO without result and to a natural intake which existed above the junction of the Maungatarere and Waingawa Rivers, where the locality was designed by nature for the very job. PROPOSALS IN 1897. In 1897 an engineer, Mr L. Reynolds, had advocated a proper intake for the borough' water supply, but the ratepayers sanctioned an alternative proposal, in which the intake was located in the bed of the Waingawa. This intake was more or less precarious and there was always the danger of having the town’s water supply cut off in a night by a big flood in the Waingawa. If the intake were shifted to the site suggested, three miles further up the river, it would give a pressure of somthing ovei- 1001 b. per square inch in the town. In Mr Reynolds’s scheme it had been suggested that a 10 inch main would provide water in abundance for a town of 10.000 people. Evidently, Mr Reynolds had under-estimated the people’s capacity for using water. In 1914 it was necessary to put in another 12 inch main and there were not 9,000 people here then. The 1897 major scheme, which was rejected by the ratepayers, had been estimated to cost £17,593. Mr Jordan stated that portion of the major scheme involved the relining of the two existing mains, at an estimated cost of about £ll,OOO. He would gladly undertake the whole scheme, which was estimated 'to cost something over £60,000, if times had been normal, but he had been led to believe that the money would not be allowed to come on the market at present nor the council to take the money, as it w.ould be required for other purposes. Mr Jordan thought it a good thing to proceed by- stages and take the first step by improving the flow, of water. In other places where the mains had been relined the flow had been increased in some instances by 100 per cent, but that depended on the degree of incrustation. The proposed loan would be paid off in 20 years and the rate to provide for it would be 8/25d in the £ over the whole borough. Mr Jordan stressed the fact that the borough was not experimenting, as it had the experience of other local bodies in New Zealand to guide
The Town' Clerk, Mr G. T. O Hara Smith, read letters from other local bodies in New Zealand giving the results of concrete-lining of mains in their areas. In all cases in which the local authorities were in a position to express an opinion, the process had proved highly satisfactory. Mr Jordan said he thought the evidence given would dispose of an) doubt in the minds of the ratepayers as to the efficiency of the scheme.
STATEMENT BY ENGINEER. The Borough Engineer, Mr C. R. Mabson, referred to the many advantages of the scheme on the lines of his previous statements and went on .to make some reference to the major scheme, which was the only one that would provide ample water for Masterton during the summer. This scheme', he pointed out. would provide for a million gallon reservoir and give the town a more adequate reserve supply, whereas at present they had only two hours’ supply. The water at present supplied to Masterton was among the best in New Zealand, he said, and there was no need to seek another source of supplyA film was then shown depicting the Tate process by which the mains were cleaned and lined. In reply to a question, Mr Mabson said it was his intention to ask the council to cement-line a certain length of street main every year until, all mains had been so treated.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19400503.2.53
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1940, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
891WATER SUPPLY Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1940, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Times-Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.