OUR WATER SUPPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9021, 6 April 1888, Page 3

OUR WATER SUPPLY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sra,~l read in your Wednesday's issue a proposition by my friend Mr. Bortt that the natural pits in the scoria paddocks near Penrose should be utilised by being oon* creted for the deodorising of nightsoil. I am afraid such operation could not be carried on on the scoria without some, at least, oif the filth being washed into the water lying underneath the surface. lam of opinion that the whole of the water underneath that scoria field is connected with that under the other scoria fields lying near. Last week, in a conversation with Mr. Seccombo, he informed me that hie well goes through a crust of scoria, underneath which a stream of water flows like a river. I remember seeing on the late Patrick Lundon's property, near the Harp of Erin, a broken cruet of the scoria, exposing a similar running stream. Now, scoria soil does not, like clay soil, deodorise nightsoil and purify it, therefore all impurity soaks with all its attendant horrors into the source of our drinking water. I called attention to this some two or three years ago in my place in the City Council; but it would not give heed. I asked for the engineer to report as to the cost and feasibility of obtaining our drinking supply from Nihoiupu. I warned the Council of the likelihood/ of our citizens being decimated with typhoid before long unless some purer supply were obtained. It looks as u my worst fears are beginning to be realised. Some steps should be taken in the direction of ascertaining whether the whole of the scoria fields are not connected in the way I mention. If they are, Onehunga Springe and Motion's Springs are bubblings up of the name water. lam not an alarmist, but if my suspicions prove well founded, this letter will not I nope have been written in vain,r-lam, &c, J. Waymouth.