AUXILIARY WATER SUPPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11368, 10 May 1900, Page 5

AUXILIARY WATER SUPPLY.

A visit to Can and Henderson Creeks, the proposed sources of the auxiliary water supply for Auckland, was made on Tuesday by Mr, Wm, Thome, accompanied by Dr. Baldwin, Sanitary Commissioner, and Dr. King, health officer for the city. Mr, Thome was seen yesterday by a Herald reporter, and said that knowing from experience that even heavy showers turned these creeks into turbid torrents, and having protested by letter in the Herald against the liso of water from this spurce, and having heard it whispered that the City Council proposed to tako the water for the first 12 months without any filtration, he interviewed Drs. Baldwin and King, who agreed to accompany him to the locus in quo, for the purpose of inspecting and making a report, At his invitation, Mr. Robert Farrell, member of the City Council, also went out. It had been raining very heavily on Monday, and was still raining when the party visited the. creeks. They found both streams in comparative flood, Bending down large quantities of muddy, yellow water, Continuing along the banks for some considerable distance, " they found," said Mr. Thome, " in several places, veiy offensive drainage passing into the creeks. The doctors secured samples of the water, and will submit»joint report to Mr. Thome in a few days. The Mayor states that the Council do intend to use filters. Messrs, J. A. Pond and Co., reporting on the water this time last year, said there were 561 bacteria to the centimetre, and assuming that filtration was arranged, the water might be used for the city supply. By tho last mail, Mr. Hugh Craig, of San Francisco, forwarded to His Worship a pamphlet containing a lecture on the water supply question, delivered before the Cooper Medical College, m which it was stated that the water, drawn fram a faucet in the college, contained from 300 to 400 bacteria to the centimetre, which water compared very favourably with the water supplies of the most-favoured cities of the world. So that as His Worship points out, there is only a difference of some 161 micro-organ-isms to the centimetre in favour of the water described in the lecture, as that supplied to the most-favoured cities in the world, and when compared with the proposed auxiliary supply, and that is before filtration. When the City Council gets the Bill through Parliament, giving it power to control the watershed, and when the filtration is adopted, he thinks there will be no reason to complain.