MEETING AT THE CHORAL HALL

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12825, 8 June 1907, Page 10

MEETING AT THE CHORAL HALL

A meeting of ratepayers, to consider the proposed high-pressure water sup ply scheme for tho city was held at tho Choral Hall last night. His Worship the Mayor, Mjr G. Payling, presided. Thoio was a small attendance. Amongst the*© present wore Councillors W. H. Cooper, T. Capos, and J. D. Hall. Tlk> .Mayor said he regretted to sec such a poor attendance. It seemed to him that the ratepayers would not take an interest in what was for their own welfare. Ho was of opinion that it was rather a disgraceful thing that more inteicst should not be manifested in such an important work as tbe City Counc.l proposed. He read an apology from Mr C. M. Gray, M.H.U., who was uuable to be present owing to another engagement, but Mr Gray said ho thought tho timo had arrived when Christchurch should havo a high-prosu-ui-e water supply. His Wore nip out lined the scheme of the City Engineei. Mr Dobson. Christchurch should bo mado sanitary, and it should be progiccj&ivo, and be one of the best cititw in tho colony. It wns only by making Christchurch a sanitary and clean city that it could expect to keep pace with other cities. Other cities had paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for their water 6upplice; but evon so, their supplies could not compare with that winch Chmtchureh could easily arrange for. The time had come when evon* houso should! be connected with tho main sewer. Tho sum -of £225,V00 had boon expended by the Drainage Board, and the interest on that sum had to be provided by the ratepayers. It was the duty of tho Council to insist on all citizens connecting their premiees with the main sewer. There were some thirty odd miles of sewers in the city, and there were only somo 1000 premises connected with the scwerß. tie was of opinion that the Council had neglected its duty in not enforcing practically a universal house connection with the sewers. Nearly a million of monoy had boon expended in tho city and suburbs for what were practically domestic purposes. It was the very facility of getting artesian water that canted so much apathy in respect to a general water supply scheme, and millions of gallons of water were now running to waste. If tho new scheme were given effect to, it would benefit tho city and tbo citizens in many ways—and would help in making Christchurch tho healthiest, as well as the prettiest city in the colony. Councillor W. H. Cooper, ohairman of the Water Supply Committee of the Council, dUivorod a forcible speech in favour of the water supply scheme. i_e said the water supply que_ion was one of great moment to Christchurch, especially at the present juncture. Tne Sydenham supply had been an unqua..lied success, and that success ought to encourage the Council aad citizens to pre©.* to a successful issue the general nigh pressure scheme. In the D-sural Vv ard there were about 4000 houses, and only 1000 cf thoso houses were connected with tho main sower—leaving iwOw hou&Es unconnected. The oruer had gone forth that all premises must be connected with the sower. In- the event of that order being insisted upon it would result in great hardship to many thousands of families in the city unless a high pressure water supply was provided. In that mornings "Press," Dr. Chilton suggested' pumping direct into the main. Mc (mt Cooper) bad been assured by the Cxty Engineer that in his opinion pumping v*»rect into the main would be a batd system. Dr. Chilton oondenuKd the reservoir proposal. Ihe storage on water in reservoirs had' been, adopted in other cities in New Zealand, and xn Australia, and it had not been founo that such storage resulted in any very noticeable deterioration of the quality of the water. The City Engineer said the water would be too short a timo in the reservoir to anow of it being contaminated. • Councillor T. Gapes heartily supported the sohemo. In reply to Dr. Chilton, the Mayor said; it was proposed! to put a 12-foot cylinder down to about 60 or 70 feet. It might bo put down uo the first stratum, or it might reach the seoono— they were not quits sure which. MiNY orship went on to deal with the article written by Dr. Chilton, in yesterday mornings "Press.' - The City _i> giuoer assured him that in the case of Sydenham there had in two years oeen practically no accumulation of deleterious or othor matter in tho tower. The Sydenham tower hadi ©ost over _i<joo, aud' to construct—as had been suggested—sixty such towers would cost some £130,000 or £140,000. A ratepayer asked if it was quite clear that one well would be sufficient to supply the city. The Mayor saidl they did not think there was any douo* about it. Dr. Oiwlton: There are doubts. Iho Mayor again urged all ratepayers to support the schema by voting for it on the 26th inst. Dr. Chilton said that as his name had been mentioned, as the writer oi an article in that morning's ''Press," he thought it incumbent on him to say a word or two. On returning to Christchurch some timo ago, he was so lioiTiiied at the absolute waste of pure water going on in the city, he had worried bis friends so much about it that ho was ifraid they had begun to think ho had "water on the brain." He was glad to notico that tho Mayor re cognised tho importance of the water supply question. In his article in "Iho Press" ho did not—except indirectly—criticise the City Council's scheme. The Mayor: "You favoured it rather." Dr. Chilton fi-i ho wrote the article several days ago, and ho did not thei. know the details of the Council's scheme. He might at once say that lie was in favour of a high pressure water supply—provided it wis secured in a proper way. Christchurch had an artesian supply, and nil that was required was to provide the necessary pressure. Why did the Council want to pump the witor up to the Port Hills and storo it thero before it was used? They in Christchurch had the water under their feet. Why not put it straight into mains and give it the necessary pressure? Tho Mayor had referred to tho fact that other cities had reservoirs. Of course they had. The reason for that was that they hod to collect water from a catchment area ond 6tore it. But in Christchurch they had to do nothing of the kind. They had tho water under their feet; they had not even to draw it out—they hud only to allow it to flow. In tho case of surface supplies, a reservoir was necessary in order to allow the sediment to 60ttle. Ho had dealt with this aspect of the question in his article in "Tho Press." and, as he said in that article, he was not talking it random. Dr. Chilton then produced a sample of water (in a bottio) taken from a reservoir supply. The sample wae not drawn straight from a tap, but the water was allowed to run into a bath, and he took a sample from the bottom of the bath. He then handed up to the Mayor the bottle containing the sample. The water was of a dirty, milky eelour, with a most market) earthy ssdimeat. On analysis, it was found that the water contained three d-fferent kinds of aquatic worms, four different kinds of shrimps, anil ever so many voce table germs and bacteria. Ho thought those present would agree that the sample was not to be compared with artesian water. He, for one. would object to pay a rate of even l(k a year to have that kind of water supplied to him, in plaoe of pure

artesian water, Ho did not see the , necessity of sinking another well at the Port Hills when there was a thousand times the quantity of water thoy required going to waste. As to the pressure necessary for fire suppression, he thought it would bo easy to provide that. The most important point was this: that we had underneath our feet a reservoir of water that was not inexhaustible, but which wasjpermanent. If people were allowed to go on sinking privato -wells, the pressure would diminish, as it had already done to some extent. He was of opinion that the city should take over Uio whole of one stratum for municipal purposes. As ho hnd pointed out in "The Press," a number of our water channels were constantly running with pure water. That water might easily be utilised to abate the dust nuisance. He was exceedingly anxious that tho natural mid abundant water supply of the citj should not be wasted; and he held strongly that it would bo a good thing for tho city to reserve to itself one stratum for municipal purposes. The Mayor said tho Council's scheme had been propounded by two skilled engineers, and he pointed out that both Melbourne and Sydney had reservoirs from which they obtained their citysupply. Mr A. C. Thomson supported tho proposed scheme, and on his motion a vote of thanks was passed to tho Mayor and those who had specially interested themselves in a high pressure water supply for the city.