The Dominion. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1908. THE WATER SUPPLY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 94, 14 January 1908, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1908. THE WATER SUPPLY.

In our issue of yesterday we gave some disturbing particulars of the present state 6f the city's .waier 'supply. At the Wainui reservoir practically no water is going over the " by-wash," while the level of the water in the Karori reservoir is falling daily. The city, that is to say, is Using daily more Water than Nature; supplies to'the two reservoirs; The position is even more acute than was the case last January, when the weather was hottef and drier than in a normal summer.' According to figures supplied by the City Engineer, the daily draught froni the Wainui reservoir has increased' from 2,700,000' gallons to 3,200,000 gallons. For the present there is no cause for alarm, although any long contiuuancc of the present dry spell will be a very. Serious'affair. It is when, the demand for water is greatest that the sources of supply are at their lowest capacity. The economic law of supply and demand is oxactly reversed. As the population of the city increases ■ —and it will continue to increase more knd more rapidly as the yefirs pass— the sources of supply will become less ancl less adequate to the demand. In the case of the tramway service, the supply 6f cars must be based upon the norm,al requirements of the travelling public; the city water-supply, on the other hand, must be equal to the abnormal demand'of the city, The construction of the new Karori dam will, of Course, niean an easing of the strain which the thirsty city, growing larger every yoar, places upon the 60,000,000gallon capacity of the existing basins at Karori and Wainui-o-mata. A multipliciitibn of reservoirs will be a bulwark against disaster in dry seasons, like the one .now current, but no increase in storage will get over the problem that will arise when in an exceptionally severe drought the city's I'equirements will greatly exceed the capacity of the feeding springs and streams. •/ Much of the trouble is due to a reckless waste of the ■ precious water. If everyone was careful in husbanding' his supply, probably a saving of Onethird would be effected. What is required is the education of the public in habits-of care-and economy. This cannot possibly be done by a sudden restraint in the summer, and complete and unrestricted freedom for the rest of the year. At present the authorities are displaying a proper vigilance, but extreme vigilance would eventually become unnecessary if a campaign against waste wore to be inaugurated and prosecuted for a year or two from January until December. To the individual householder there is 116 inducement to change his habits. In most cases he never thinks of the matter at all, and wastes three times as much water as he uses. When he does reflect upon the ominous warnings which he reads in his newspaper, he Consoles himself with the reflection that the damage which he can do is inappreciable. If for half the year he were made to realise the imprudence .oixross waste A he might come in time.

to do his sllafe iti. the work of conservation as a matter of coiiMe. In the meantime, while the authorities are —as we hope they are—thinking upon the situation that will arise ill the near hi hi re j W6 -trust that the people who have lawns and gardens will do their feelings the violence of admitting in a pructibal fft fill ion that it 16 selfish, and not th 6 paft of good citizens, to nurture their grass and flowers at the expense of thousands of their fellows.