ESTABLISHED 1875 The Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY JANUARY 22, 1903 WOODVILLE WATERWORKS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7629, 22 January 1903, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1875

The Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY JANUARY 22, 1903 WOODVILLE WATERWORKS.

Woodyille was en fete yesterday when the long-planned waterworks scheme was at last declared to be an accomplished fact, and the ceremony was performed of freeing tb.B Manga papa from the service reeervojr into a complete system of town mains Our neighbours through the Gorge are reaping the reward of a long fight. In 1894 several progressive settlers called their neighbours together to consider the question of a proper water supply, arid from thats time to the present the people of Woodviile have steadily hammered away till now their desire has been achieved and their first step in municipal progress accomplished, The work of harnessing the clear waters of the Mangapapa, a stream having jfcs

source in tho R-nahines and running along the foot of the ranges till it finds an outlet in the Manawatu rivor, La 3 presented no great difficulty, bu!; nevertheless is one ol considerable magnitude for a small community. The total cost has b: co twelve thousand pounds, the chief items of expenditure being £200 for intake well and dam, £1050 for Sin mains for 140 chains fiom lie infc-ko io the service reservoir, £1320 for tbo roservci-, £2247 for lelivery mains, and £7,197 for land, law aud supervision charges. Several c ports were obtained in connection with the scheme, one being on tho •'ejisibilifcv or otherwise of an artesian ™pp!v, but in tho end the opinion 0' Mr MetcaU'e, the engineer who has been engggod by the Palmerston Council co report on the Fitzherbert bridge., was adr.picj, and tho scheme he submiitcd iv 189 i is tho basis of the present undertaking. The water thus secured to "Woodville if sidenfcg is office quality, so the Government Analyst balieves, as ha has repoi ted on tbe'water to the following eflecfc:—" The sample of water was bright and clear, and gave on standing oaly a small deposit, which, under the microscope, proved to be mainly vegetable debris with a few diatoms aud other orgoniams common to running waters The analysis shows this water to be a very soft one, unusually low in solids. When all the results are taken into consideration it is evident that the water is a good one for domestic purposes." The sample, it may be noted, was taken in the winter time The Woodville people are therefore to be congratulated on having secured a cheap, efficient and high quality water supply such as many colonial towns of a more pretentious character are still dreaming of. May thij important servive be a forerunner of more ambitious municipal schemes - such as drainage, electric lighting and abattoirs—which the growing importance of the town demands.