The New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1871.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 2466, 20 December 1871, Page 2

The New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1871.

We were glad to see that no objection was made in the Council on Monday to Mr. Buckland's motion, requesting the Superintendent to place on the additioa.il estimates the sum of two

hundred and fifty pounds, for the purpose of ascertaining by boring whether a supply of water could be obtained for the use of the city of Auckland and shipping on the artesian principle. The necessity for providing a supply of pure water is acknowledged to be a matter of pressing importance, and already several schemes have been propounded, each of which has its particular advocates. Whatever may be, however, the comparative merits of these schemes, there is no doubt but

that they share in common one great drawback, the expenditure of a verylarge sum of money, to render them effective. Sums of fifty and sixty thousand pounds, and even seventy thousand pounds respectively, have been spoken of in connection with one or other of them.

We have again and again advocated a resort to the experiment of artesian boring, having been long since aware of the success which, attended Mr. Firth's private attempt to supply his own business premises in Lower Queen-street by boring for water oil this principle; and before a recourse is had to the very large expenditure which must necessarily be entailed in carrying out either of the proposed schemes for bringing water into Auckland, the possibility of-adopting the far simpler, cheaper, and in every way better plan for procuring a supply of water, should be thoroughly* tested. With proper means and appliances the sum proposed by Mr. Buekland is, we believe, ample for the purpose. Some time since, in our issue of I April last, we published from Chambers' Journal an extract from a particularly interesting paper "on well " boring and pumping machinery," read by a Mr. W- Mather, at Man- ! Chester, at a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The paper alluded to was no mere theoretical essay, but described the result of certain works achieved on a large scale, leaving no doubt as to the value of the principle employed, which has, in fact, been largely adopted in many parts of England, the Continent, and in India. Its chief merits over the ordinary processes of artesian boringg

are its simplicity and its inexpensiveness. An artesian shaft eighteen inches in diameter may be put down to a depth of even 4000 feet, if required. An ordinary rope is substituted for the usual boring rods, which renders the cost comparatively trifling, A steam-engine, a flat hemp rope, a few boring-tools, lifts, and grapnels of various forms, constitute, we are told, the working apparatus. With such machinery, a abaft eighteen inches in diameter was carried to a depth of 1312 feet in the Vale of Tees, through sandstone, limestone, gypsum, and marl. The time occupied in this work was 510 days, and the number of men employed, including a smith to sharpen the cutters, never exceeded six. At Norwich a well, eighteen inches and twenty-four inches in diameter, was sunk by this apparatus to a depth of 1184 feet, mostly through chalk and flint, at the rate of one foot' eleven inches per day. The Public "Works -Department in India have, we are told, three of these machines in use, but the work which is most pertinent to our own case, and which evidences the value of artesian boring, as applied to the supply of the city with water, is the case of Hull, in Yorkshire. Three holes were sunk to a depth of 400 feet each, and tapped a supply of water, which mounts to the sarface, and delivers a copious flow of two million gallons every day for tho use of the inhabitants, without pumping. "We have, we think, said enough of Mr. Mather's principle and ita practical results to show that it is at once simple, cheap, aud efficient, and readily practicable.

Now, better far than a resort to Papakura or "Waitakerei, or to tlie Onehunga spriugs, which, as Mr. Luudon very fairly claims, are needed by the inhabitants of Onehunga, would it be to draw our supply of water from our own clay hills, immediately surrounding the city. "Why resort to expensive works for the purpose of bringing water for miles, when, for aught we know, a far more inexhaustible and purer supply may be had at our very doors for a comparatively trifling cost. It was stated, in opposition to Mr. Buckland's proposal, by a member in the Council, that a well had been sunk to an enormous depth, 500 feet, we think he said, in the Albert Barracks, and without obtaining water. Very true, and the objector might as well have urged that the craters of Rangitoto and Mount Eden hold no water. A very different result would, we believe, be obtained by boring anywhere on the west side of the city, or even in tho Domain. The Lake on the North Shore is evidence of the presence of inexhaustible springs in the lower strata of the country about Auckland. From the mouth of an artesian well in that portion of the Domain where the observatory is situated, or from one on the upper portion of the western side of the city, the whole town and harbour might be supplied by the simple process of gravitation. There could, too, bo 110 doubt as to the superior purity and freshness of tho water so obtained over that brought from running streams iu an artificial conduit, which, if of wood, must after a time affect the water with vegetable matter. In winter, too, water obtained from streams must always be more or less impure. It is, therefore, exceedingly desirable that the proposal of Mr. Bucldand be as speedily as possible carried iuto I effect; and we believe that it would be both an economy of time and money if a boring apparatus, on Mr. Mather's principle, were procured for tho purpose. The road engine could, doubtless, supply the motive power; and the remainder of the machinery necessary appears to be but of trifling value, while the services of persons acquainted with the practical work of boring would not be very difficult to obtain, considering that even now tho plains of Chriatchurch and Hawke's Bay are largely supplied with water from artesian wells.

The question was raised in the Council on Monday, whether the cost of such experiment should come out of city or provincial funds. We perceive, however, that the City Corporation is fully aware of its responsibility in this matter, as instanced in the resolution carried by Mr. Councillor Isaacs at its meeting on Monday last, and we would certainly suggest that one way in which City Corporation and. Provincial Executive might act conjointly in this matter of water supply, would be in the latter carrying out Mr. Buckland's motion, and in the former supplementing the amount placed on the provincial estimates with a similar sum. The experiment" is one well worth trying, and ought to be tried before vastly more expensive plans are resorted to. Water led in from Papakura or Waitakerei will cost, say from £50,000 to £70,000. The works will be continually needing repair, and the interest on the money will be a continual charge in some shape on those who use the water, while, in the case of the Waitakerei supply, owners of land must be compensated for practical loss of a large extent of land, for let the forest be felled and the supply will fail at once. The cost of sinking an artesian well to a depth of 1312 feet through rock in England, occupied 540 working days for six men, or, at the colonial rate of wages, say Vs. per day, a gross sum for labour of £1134 Is not the difference in cost worth our most earnest consideration ?