BRITISH TRADE TRIUMPH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 6

BRITISH TRADE TRIUMPH.

BIG ECUADOR CONTRACT.

other trade triumph has been won by j k'British firm in South America in the contract which has just been signed .ween the Government .of Ecuador and : the South American representative of Messrs. T. G. White and Co. engineers, of Lonion. The contract involves an expenditure on public works for the city of Guayaluil of £2,000,000, and includes the prorisipn of a water supply, sanitary and rain •ewers, and the paving of the .■'streets. Acx>rdmg to.the-conditions of the contract ihe work will be extended over several fears, and will be proceeded with as the government of ■, Ecuador makes the required grants for the work, but the contractors Delieve that the whole of the great scheme wJI be completed .in about five years. work will be commenced within the next six months. • "We have not yet received • a full report from our representative on the spot " said ono of the heads of Messrs. J. 6 White and Go., "but we know that in a general way the" question of the water supply of Guayaquil must be tackled first. The water used in the town at present 3omes from the . mountains on the other side of the River Guayas, 60 miles from Guayaquil. It is pure spring water, and is jarned down beside the Guayaquil and Quito Railway, crosses the river by a pip© laid in the bed of the stream, and so to a reservoir in the town. The pipe that carries the water is only an llinpipe, which is altogether insufficient for the town. The water is so pure that it requires no filtraion. Only for three hours in the day is this water available, and in that time the householders draw what they require for the day and store it in the tanks in their bouses. At, places on the route the soil "M"* * he connections of the houses with the mam pipe are in many instances rusted through, so that there is a great I C!iK«i ETC. Another leakage, however, has also tc be taken into account by the engineers. Un the way down from the mountain the llin pipe passes through several villages, and the inhabitants thereof have discovered an easy and diverting way of getting pure water without mrftsh. trouble. The\ object to having to climb the hill or wall a long distance for their water supply and so they attack the pipe that leads U Guayaquil. With the aid of a big, stout nail and a hammer— a stone if a, hammer is not available—they bore a hole ir the side of that inoffensive pipe and drinl to the glory of Ecuador and the Englisl engineers They also use the water foi household purposes. The contract is one of others which wil be entered into by the Ecuador Govern ment in the future, • for they are makim every endeavour to bring the towns of th< country to the highest level of efficient for dealing with the increasing trade o the republic. At present most of thi roads in Ecuador are bridle-roads only and —'16 are often ~ impassable for hall the jk Guayaquil is visited by th< steamers of three • European steamshh lines, as well as ships plying on the Paci fie Coast only. In 1910 there enteret Guayaquil 213 vessels, of a tonnage o 396,260, and of that figure 190,390 ton were British.