DOWNS WATER SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22518, 28 September 1938, Page 16

DOWNS WATER SUPPLY

STOCK AND HOMES TO BENEFIT MINISTER INAUGURATES SCHEME PLAN WILL COVER VAST AREA IN THE SOUTH Driving a giant caterpillar tractor which operates the pipe-layer, the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, yesterday officially declared open works on the vast Downs water-supply scheme. This scheme will ultimately supply pure water for stock and homes over an area of 154,000 acres. It is the biggest of its kind in the Dominion, and, as all speakers said yesterday at the ceremony, its beginning marks one of the most significant events in the history of South Canterbury. One of the outstanding features of the scheme is the use which is ■ being made of modern machinery. Easily the’ most striking of these modern units is the machine used for the actual laying of the Attached to a caterpillar tractor is a heavily weighted tandem arrangement to which hangs a steel cutter in the shape of a giant bodkin. This bodkin, known as the “torpedo,” lays pipe-lines as easily as one can thread a needle through cloth. It lays the pipes 18 inches underground, leaving no indication of its operation with pipes of small diameter, and only the slightest disturbance of the ground with heavier pipes, where the blade holding the “torpedo” cuts the surface. It is the first time in New Zealand pipes have been laid in this fashion—the average rate is 600 feet an hour or a mile a day per shift for a small pipe—and it is even thought that it is the first time this type of machinery has been used for pipe-laying in the world. With Mr Semple driving the machine yesterday, a rate of 700 feet an hour was attained, although this of course is not the normal rate. • - For Four Counties The extent of the scheme embraces portions of four counties as under:— Waimate County 22,000 acres. Levels County 95,000 acres, Mackenzie County 5000 acres, Geraldine County 32,000 aC The district to be served will extend from the Otaio river to the Kakahu river, and from the coast to the high downs with the exception of the Levels Plain and other areas where adequate water supplies are avaUable. The supply will embrace the district from Cave to the Monavale road in the Mackenzie County. In the mural district served a consumption of four gallons an acre a day will be provided for. and 25- gallons a day a head of population. The Pleasant Point town district will be served at the rate of 40 gallons a head a day and provision will be made , for an adequate fire-fighting service. The water will be drawn frcm the Te Ngawai river six miles above Albury, and will be carried for 16 miles in a 13in diameter pipeline, various branches diverging below this point to five concrete-lined reservoirs situated at Claremont, Sutherland’s Hill. = Clelland’s Hill, Waitohi, and Pareora riding, Waimate County. These reservoirs will have a combined capacity of approximately 2,000,000 gallons. A network of branch pipes will extend from these reservoirs, terminatin in Jin farm service pipes connected with homesteads and consumption points in each 100 acres of the area. The total length of pipe required will be about 800 miles. Modr ern mechanical methods will be used tc expedite the connecting and laying of the pipes which will be buried 13 inches below the ground surface. Suitable desilting and pressure regulating apparatus will be employed at the intake and at other points. Cost of Scheme The scheme is estimated to cost £270,000, of which the Government is finding 50 per cent. The local bodies have guaranteed a revenue of £9IOO per annum, which will meet interest and sinking fund on £135.000 and all maintenance costs. The Government will maintain the scheme. It is expected that the benefit of the scheme will be made available to the farmers as each section is completed, commencing in September, 1939, and concluding with the complete area reticulated in September, 1940. Starting Ceremony The ceremony, at which Mr Semple opened the work on the scheme, near Pleasant Point, was presided over by Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P., to whom warm praise was given by all speakers as the originator of the scheme. Mr Burnett himself described the day as a “memorable turning point in ■ the history of South Canterbury.” Mr Clyde Carr, M.P., said that although he was a “party” man. he was broadminded enough to give credit to Mr Burnett for his interest in the scheme. He had initiated the plan and made it a sufficiently sound one for Government approval. j Mr T. B. Garrick, chairman of the Levels County Council, suggested that the scheme should be renamed the “Burnett Water Supply” scheme. Mr J. Bitchener. Minister for Public Works in the last Government, thanked Mr Semple for his interest in he scheme. Colonel K. Mackenzie, chairman of the Geraldine County Council, Mr D. Davidson, chairman of the Mackenzie County Council, Mr M. Maze, chairman of the Pleasant Point Town Board, Mr A. J. Davey. chairman of the Downlands Water Supply Investigation Committee, and the Mayor of Timaru, Mr W. Tweedy, also spoke, all mentioning Mr Burnett’s services and the interest and help of the Minister. The Minister and all other speakers paid a notable tribute to the engineers associated with the scheme, including the District Public Works Engineer (Mr F. Langbein), the Resident Irrigation Engineer (Mr T. G. Beck), and the men in charge of local activities. The Minister said that the cost of laying the pipes for the scheme by hand would have been 5d a foot; by the machinery being used, it was reduced to Id a foot. One machine equalled the work of 80 men. The Minister said that when -the scheme was being considered it was discovered that it would have been impossible to do it by the old hand methods. He stoutly defended the mechanisation of public works, claiming that it was the rational thing to do, in view of the great savings possible in time and cost.

“Instead of digging and trenching, sweating and groaning, and perhaps saving a sit-down strike now and again, we can do it in this way,” the Minister added.

The official party was entertained at afternoon tea at the domestic training centre. “Stratheona,” started recently under Mr Burnett’s patronage.