OUR ARTESIAN WATER SUPPLY.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8780, 28 April 1894, Page 5

OUR ARTESIAN WATER SUPPLY.

AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.

A most interesting and important experiment is now being made nt the Christchurch .Museum by Professor Hutton. For a long timo it has been asserted by some that the artesian water used in Ctuistehurch cornea from the Rivet , Waimakariri, and by others that tho tlow is ruin water filtering into the ground. The Professor h endeavouring to discover which, if cither, of the contentions is the correct one. Iv the yard beside the Museum a well has beea sunk to the lower stratum, ISOft, and a good flow of water obtained. From a point level with tho ground a branch pipe has been taken inside the Museum n.ad affixed to an upright glass tube some tea feet high. The glass ia marked around iv feet aud inches, co that the pressure of the water taken from the level of tho ground can at once be read. The well was sunk in three and a-half days, and from the start, for a short time, a height of nine feet eight inches was registered, but this has since fallen two inches. Professor Hubtou has for several days taken the record every hour and finds that the rise and fall ot the barometer has no effect upon the pressure of the artesian water. The question, therefore, is can it be that the river supplies tho flow, or what is responsible for it ? Tho Professor, of course, says that it is yet impossible to tell the origin of the water, but he will take the height every day, and in tho course of a year he thinks lie ought to be able to come to a satisfactory decision. Then, again, he says there will be the question of the rise and fall of tho Waiinakariri, but that) he is abour, to settle by appointing o> responsible co-worker in Kaiapoi to take the daily measurements of the river. If, he says, there were suddenly to be an extraordinary flood in the river mentioned, by means of his patent gauge, he would be enabled to at ouce note if there was or was not an increase in tho pressure, which, if the water really came from the Wuimakariri, must show a large increase in a case of flood. In the meantime, it has been found that neither tides nor barometric changes affect the flow, so the point is, where doea it come from and how is it affected ? That is the question which Professor Hutton has now determined to devote hia time to solving.