THE WAMAKARIRI POWER SCHEME.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11084, 1 October 1901, Page 2

THE WAMAKARIRI POWER SCHEME.

The following letter hae been addressed by Mr G. P. Williams, M. Inst. C.E., engineer to the Waimakariri-Aahley Water Supply Boaixi, to the chairman of the Selwyn. County Council: — ''At the conference between yourself and representatives of our Board, I understood you to say that on© of the City Council's guarantees to you was to deliver you 14 cubic fee* of water per second during thte progress of t!h.eir works, and afterwards, if at any time their own channel was blocked ; also, that they proposed to effect this by pumping this supply into your race. This is the method mentioned , in the "Lyttelton Times" report of your conference with the City-Council, and, is the one I described in my letter as impracticable. "It now appears, upon the authority of Ilia Worship the Mayor, that their intention is not to deliver water direct into your race near whtere it would branch, off from their channel, but only to pump the water at the Gorge, six miles away, and into i&e upper end of tiheir new channel. This being so, it is obvious tihat the City Council must have abandoned the latter part of their guarantee -to, you, because a wash-out or slip migiht occur in their new channel at any part of its whole length, and it would then be only by .means of pumping nea* th!e lowest end of their channel, in the way tdiat I described, that the guaranteed sap-

ply could reach your race. The preset t proposal to supply ymi temporarily fng ■. the Gorge, by building fhrar.ing in , alongside tlie -whole length of the work t» ', it- .proceeds, is even more wildly iffiSas; I ticalble than, the pumping scheme. '•. 'f "In an undertaking of this magnitudt ft | is customary to let several contracts | gether, so that work can proceed siiotit, I taneou«,ly over the whole length at as toxiu | (points as 'possible, thereby sarins* tintegi | interesh on idle money. Thfe City Cteaasj-' | can scarcely have reckoned how wh t f. years it would take to complete tlhe wjsj |' six miles.of 'channel piecemeal, if | r tions .one at a time, say only one mifa $ '•} lengtli. Certainly not within the - ; tyro years. If in smaller sections it C take all the longer. They surely can «$" t\ have ascerfeiined the cost of n flume C mile in length eubstivntial enough to,cm,: t fourteen heads of water on the reqw§ I" gj*ad« ailong Ih* face of the terrace.. £ certainly can never have realised that «4' ' section of ihiming, carrying >onr snpjjj" J close alongside the earthwork wihile in pjj. », grees_, would be constantly esposed a(,i| f: points to the imminent risk of L placed or buried u.p by the action of fißT' *.' ing earth nnd boulders, either from j? cuttings or on fc'ke slopes of upoil-iaria; £ This lengtb of fluming, if hot t destroyed, would afterwards have t>'< l< ; taJ\en up, if .possible, andi rebuilt five.lnga, ~ They con never 'have considered g .practical contractor vwild be | obstruction to his earthwork |- tiona unless he obtained an exofbiiifi (. price.' The ooet of this item of ilossw i alone would exceed the total original m, f mat* for the whole works. ,\ V, | "The point, however, which coaeertfe'js t. is that no body of men could. |X giwraaite« toji to keep your supply gong U under the.aSverfte condition* suggenfedi «pj' |- during all the years that tfce worka troSd- >". be in progress. On the whole, your chsaft: f. of being able to maintain your pragmtjn«: g ply "by tlii« fhiming-iu-sesiibns plaa wml p be Vors.o than under the pumping sclmss ! § "My own, opinion- ia tiat, in any fcj*c| § it -wowld be -vme for your Council L aist thaV ait ail events (for the lengtfe f fhe bad terraoe below Deans's GullyVywr '? present race should be. leffc intact .$»% ;, ' ! i the progress of the' -works. This woitildto Yolv,e. tannelling for the new channel % &, a kengidi o*f one end & .half or two mi|« uponi *• the _ Knee, and for the'roasonsjf.to |; : in my report'jpublished pr 'Prese , of Alarch "9tfti. Nothing lessijiitf f: this wjould be eatfe. O£ course, Jiow#f, f>,_ I have formed a far 'higher estimate ol : % l< works tiaoeicsary than that supplied fagt fe City Council." " ' ■ .',i"f:' ? : -