WATER FOR THE HIGH LEVELS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 173, 15 April 1908, Page 8

WATER FOR THE HIGH LEVELS.

O—- —— THE KELBURNE INSTALLATION. VISIT. OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS., As ■ Wellington spreads' further and fur- ( tlier-up towards .tho, summits qf its surrounding hills, now problems of water, supply and drainago present themselves 'to , the City Council and its engineer. When water has to be supplied by gravitation to houses on the hills, it must be pumped up . first .to 1 higher hills. Hence the pumping plant and 1 tank that have been supplying Brooklyn for ' the last- few months, and hence also the similar installation which has just come-'iiito use for the . benefit of the: householders of Kelburne. This latest municipal public work was opened yesterday with a- minimum of , coremony, by His Worship tho Mayor (Hon. T. W. Hislop), in the presence of several members of the City Council. " . A Visit to tho Destructor. The party left tho Town Hall in drag and motor car, and before starting towards tho real business of the afternoon, took advantage of the opportunity to pay a visit to tho now - destructor. ' They found that tho. Hugo apparatus had been working for several days, with over increasing smoothness, -arid erverhigher efficiency. It is supplying, the power not only for pumping the city's sewago over the hill to Lyell Bay, but also for tho electric lighting of the adjacent Corporation yard, but at present'there is'not enough rubbish to keep it going continuously, and 1 accordingly coal fires are kept banked up under tho old boilers' of tho pumping' plant, and these take iip the running for a few hours out of every 24; - ' " Elcctric Pumping Plant.'/. The party then drove up to Polhill Gully, beyond Aro Street, 1 and entered the now pumping station for the Kelburno watersupply. The electric motor pump, are housed, in a neat stuccoed building beside the road. Tho motor is of 80 h.p.J and tho current is supplied from the tramway powerhouse. The water is pumped direct, from the mains, and can be drawn from either the Karon or Waini supply, or from'tliq small basin which is-situated just above the station, and is' fed from tho Karori reservoir..' Councillors. were much interested ,in the- electric level indicator, which shows to- an observer in the pumping station every rise and fall.in tho water-in-tank 400-feet above, and.makes a permanent record on paper. The . pump was t sot to-work, and.the movements/of- tho indicator'watched. Water Officially Turned On. On" the way-up to, the reservoir,, the water in the down main was officially turned on by the Mayors Parenthetically it may be mentioned that the residents have had 1 the actual usi of it for soveral ,/Arrived at the tank, tho party had no difficulty in believing that they were 740 feot abovo tlie'sea, or 100 feet higher than, iMount Victoria.' Tho K.irori reservoir lay far below them; tho Jvelburno . liiosk appeared to be almost on the margin of the harbour. Sighting along the level covering of tho tank, one could see that it was higher than tho , highest; houses of Northland. The tank-is 13 feet deep, and has a capacity of 200,000 gallons'/, The pump • can . fill it in 12 hours, or at the .rate" of, 350 gallons a minute. • At .present' two- hours' pumping every week 1 is onough; The whplq.'of Kelburne is to be supplied -from .this I .source.Mr. W- H;-.'Morton, committed the ,actual- directipn 'of - tho;.work,- - . from the'landiiig of: the .'material to'ihe completion : of 'the • whole thing, to Mf..,.W.: H.Buswcll, of the Corporation Tramways, Department-! who" will have the supervision- of both tho Brooklyn and Kelburne waterworks. , . , ' On the return journoy to town, a,, halt was made at Kelburne while-a couple ,of Corporation employees demonstrated, with a hose.and standpipo, tho : a.mple; pressure of. the new water-supply. ' ...