BURSTING OF A WATER MAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 157, 6 July 1896, Page 4

BURSTING OF A WATER MAIN.

CITY CLUB HOTEL FLOODED AND

DAMAGED.

ADJOINING PREMISES ALSO

FLOODED.

About six o'clock this morning a water main in Shortland-street burst in front of the City Club Hotel. It had a disastrous effect for the pressure of water was bo great that ib spouted as high aa the top storey of the City Club Hotel and the adjoining top premises occupied by Mr H. F. Windsor as dental rooms. In the ground floor below Mr Windsor's are the offices of the Commercial Union Insurance Company and Mr Thos. Cotter, solicitor. The whole of these premises were flooded and a number of documents saturated with water. However, it was in the City Club Hotel that the greatest damage was done, for the whole of the four Btories of the premises and the cellar were flooded. A number of the windows in front of the hotel were also smashed by the water throwing up pieces of road metal, and for come time the occupants of the hotel were in danger from this cause.

It appears thafa the water epouted for something like a quarter of an hour before ft was cut off. A telephone message was sent to Mr Carlaw at the Kyber Pass Resevoir a few minutes after Bix o'clock acquainting him of the matter and the water was cut off in town by Mr J. Lamb, one of the Council's employees. Mr E. J. Smith, licensee of the City Club Hotel, accompauied a Star reporter over the premises at 9 o'clock this morning. The floors of each of the four Btoreys were covered with water while the walla of the different rooms wore more or less damaged. The billiard table on the second floor was also covered with water, while a lot of the stock in the cellar was floating about. The fronb portion of the third storey was occupied as a bedroom and here Mr and Mrs Smith and intant slept until they were bo rudely awakened this morning. * On the floor of the bedroom was a large quantity of metal dust and ecoria ash as well as a number of large stones. The servants and some boarders slepbon the fourth floor. Mr Smith states that he was awakened between five and six o'clock by stones coming through the window and the smashing of glass arid a deluge of water. The noise was so groat that it drowned all other sound. He was almost paralysed for the time as it was impossible to either light a candle or the gas. Mr and Mrs Smith with their infant, fonr weeks old, got oub of the hotel in darkness in the best manner they could covered only in their nighb apparel. The servants and lodgers were sleeping on the top floor, and they also had great difficulty in getting out of the hotel' in the darknesß. Mr Smith estimates that the premises and Btock m the hotelis damage to the extent of £500. . The water came through a Bkylight into Mr Windsor's premises. All his dental apartments were flooded by water, which went through the floor into the offices of the Commercial Union and Mr Cotter. The water also flooded Mr Canning's cellar.

Mr Smith gob a cab and his wife and the servants were driven to the Clarendon Hotel, while Mr Faulkner, of the Bank of jNew Zealand, kindly supplied Mr Smith with an outfit.

To-day Coancil employees hare beep busily engaged putting in a new eight inch pipe to replace the old one.