HARNESSING THE WAIMAKARIRI.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12620, 1 October 1901, Page 7

HARNESSING THE WAIMAKARIRI.

Mr G- P. Williams -'has addressed the following letter to the Chairman of the Belwyni County Council: Christchurch, Sept- 30. To the Chairman, BeJwyn County Council. Dear'Sir,—At the conference between. yourself and representatives of our Board, I understood you to Ba ,y that one of the City Council's guarantees to "you Was to deliver you fourteen cubic feet of water per second during the progress of tli.e,r works, audi after-wards at any lime if their own channel was blocked; also, that they • proposed to effect this by pumping tins supply iuto your race. This ■ is the ratthicd; mentioned in, the “Lyttelton; Times ” report of your conference With the City Council, and is the one described in my report as impracticable. It now appears, upon the authority of his Worship the Mayor, that their •intentam is. hot .to deliver water direct into. your race near ■where it would branch off from their channel, but only to pump the water at the Gorge, six miles away, and into the', upper enci of their. new channel. This being so, alt is* chylous that the , City 'Cpu-ncd must have abandoned the latter part' of their guarantee to you, because a wash-out or slip -might occur in. their new Channel at any parD of its whole length, and it would then be only by means of pumping near the lowest end .of their channel, in the way that I described, that 1 the guaranteed supply could reach your race. The present pro-, posal to- supply you temporarily from the Gorge, hy building fuming in sections alongside the whole length of the work as it proceeds, is even moie wildly.'impracticable than the-’pumping ■schem-:*. In an'under'taking of this magnitude, it is customary to let several contracts together, so that work can proceed simultaneously over the whole length at as many points as possible, thereby saving time and interest on idle money. ; The City Council Can. scarcely have reckoned how many years it would take to complete theWhol© six’ miles' of channel piecemeal, in sections one at a time, say only one v mile in length. Certainly not within the stipulated Wo years. If in smaller sections, it would take all the longer. They surely ean. nev;r have' ascertained the ■ cost of a fume cue mile in length, substantial enough to miry fourteen heads of water on the required grade along the face of the terrace. They certainly can never have realised- that each section’ of fluming carrying your supply close along-* side the earthwork while in progress .would bo constantly exposed alt all -points to the imminent : -risk of balng. displaced or .buffed up by the action of" faling'shingle and boulders; eitih'eir from the cuttings or on the slopes «f' spoil-banks. This length of fluming, if not 'altogether destroyed, would afterwards have to be -taken tip, if possible, and rebuilt five times. They can never have Considered that ,no practical contractor would be hampered by such an obstruction to hi* earthwork operations, unless he obtained an; 'exorbitant price. Thei cost of this item of fluming alone would exceed the total original estimate for this whole works. The point, however, which concerns you, da that no body, of men could possibly guarantee you to keep your supply going under the. adverse conditions suggested, and duxjog alt the years that the works would bs in progress. On the whole, your chance of being able to maintain your present supply by this fluming-in-seotions plan would be Worse than under the pumping scheme. My own opinion, is that, -in any case, it would be wise for your Council to insist that, at all events for thti length along the bad terrace below Deans’s ; Gully, your present race should be left intact during the prcgWss of the works. This would involve tunnelling. for thei new channel for ia length of one and a half or two miles upon the lines, and for, the reasons, a.s die®oribed in my report published! in the ■“Press” of -March 9. Nothing teas than this would he safe 1 . Of course, however, 1 have formed a far higher estimate of the works necessaSy than that supplied to the City Council.—l remain, yours faithfully, GEORGE PHIPPS WILLIAMS, M.. Inst, C.E., Engineer lo the Wrimakariri-AsMey Water-supply Beard.-

. TO THE EDITOR. : , . , , Bir;-r-I tm glad to not© . on the above subject in. Thm%c|syk|; md! th© attitude you take up i no coouCclion: ■with this most important matter. ''The members of the Selwyn County Council appear to be. quite unable to appreciate the. magnitude of this scheme or estimate .-thebenefits that would assuredly accrue : to 'the-, city and the province if it as carried to 1C successful issue. As to the objections that have been raised 1 so faV to the undertaking, l there is really nothing in them. They aye unworthy of serious.consideration, and precisely of the same trumpery kind that have always been raised by a section of the public when any great scheme was suggested or proposed. Was not the same sort of opposition offered when the tunnel through the Port Hills wa® first talked about? . And., was not Stephenson (to go further back), toldl when he -proposed,to apply steam to machinery, that he! was a madman and a fool, and, in his own words, did he not fight for the - locomotive for twenty, years single-handed,.and put,up with every rebuff , determined-not to be put down? Of course he did! And if he had listened to the predictions of the men who strove to put every obstacle in his way, the invention of -the locomotive might) have been, postponed indefinitely. The extraordinary thing in connection : with the Waimakariri schema is that'the lelwyn County councillors should be -so , picking in intelligence, public spirit and fnterpriis© as not to perceive that if they Smock .the project on the head they will bo

retarding the progress of Christchurch and of Canterbury, and in doing this they roust necessarily injure their own individual interests, as well as those of the community, since it is as certain as anything can be. that the successful harnessing of the Waimakarirl must benefit all. As the Mayor has pointed out, the Legislature should be asked at once to grant an amendment of the Water Supply Act, and thus prevent a County Council from standing in the way of ai great public work. As to the settlers Whose rights, according to themselves, are threatened, provision can easily be made, as you have shown, to protect their interests if the scheme is proceeded with; and, in- any case, these men are few in. number, and it would be absurd, indeed, if their small interests should interfere with those of tens of thousands of citizens. However, there is no reason- why their interests should suffer in any way. If we had a. few men here possessed, of the indomitable will and determination to trample down vexatious objections, and surmount all obstacles that Stephenson possessed, the “harnessing of the Wahnakariri” would soon be an accomplished fact.—l am,etc., WHERE THERE’S* A WILL THERE’S A WAY.