CITY COUNCIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11506, 19 August 1899, Page 2

CITY COUNCIL.

A special'^meeting of the City Council was held last night to consider the question of the water supply. There were present—His Worship the Mayor (Mr W. Swan), and Crs Dennieton, Hayiies, Crust, Ohisholm, Park, Carroll, Howlison, Christopher, and Dawson.

His Worship the Mayor said: This is a special meeting of the council, called in accordance with a resolution passed at the last ordinary meeting, to consider the necessity of increasing' the present water supply, and the reports of Messrs Leslie H. Raynolds R. Hay, and tho city surveyox' thereon. I may say that'both the present supplies ara kept as far as possible up to the mark—that is, the Ross Creek and the Silverstream supplies. The fact is, however, becoming more apparent every year that these supplies must be considerably increased if the requirements of the city are to be kept pace with. The dry season's of recent years have shown us that we are liable to run short of the daily draw off by about half a million gallons,'and the people living on high levels are put to n'great deal of inconvenience, ~'i'l'is shortage has also placed the, corporation under,the necessity of taking in a low-level.supply from tho Leith, and a low-level, supply means more or less contamination, and should bo avoided if pos: sible". The recommendation made to the council by the "Water Committee is l that in the meantime the preliminary steps of acquiring certain land at -the head of,the Leith should bo taken.. But I.think that .the first question which should be decided is whether tho council intends to take a supply of water from the Leith and Waitati or not. If it says yes, then steps can be taken to. acquire land; but the main question should first be Eettled, and then the council will proceed on some regular lines. Looking at "The Municipal Corporations Act, 1886," it would seem that tho council can proceed without requiring any special act of Parliament. In saying this 1 am subject to correction from the city solicitors, of course; but, on the faco of it, the Municipal Corporations Act appears to enable us to go on with any scheme that may be decided on, and to lay down the procedure to bo followed. Clause 314- gives power to borrow for extending the waterworks after taking a poll, clause 316 says that both lands and water may be taken outside the borough for waterworks, and clause 317 provides for the taking of suoh lands and water under the Public Works Act. From this it would seem, if the city solicitors advise thero is no legal obstacle, that the way is clear for the council to proceed with any schemo it may adopt, and it appears to me, therefore, that the council should definitely say whether it intends to supplement its present supply by taking in part of the waters of the Waitati, or tho Leith and the Waitati, and, having settled this question,'the steps to be afterwards taken can go on according to law. It is of no use buying pieces of land here and there if we afterwards decido not to make use of the supply from tho Leith or Waitati jso that, in my opinion, tho council should first decide to take the waters according to law. .

iCr Carroll trusted that the council ,would mako as little delay, as possible in obtaining for the'higher levels of the city a supply of water from the head waters of the Leith and Waitati. He did not think there could be any two opinions as to the necessity of provision j being made for such' a supply. Cr Haynes: I am sorry to interrupt Cr Carroll, but this seems to be a. very irregular way of conducting the business we have gathered together to transact. We ought to have a motion, and it should come either from your Worship or from the chairman of the Water Committee. Cr Carroll said that he was not in the >it of acting irregularly. Ho intended to move a motion, and ho did not think that he was saying too much in the way of preliminary remarks to affect Cr Haynes's patience. The motion ho proposed to move was as follows: — " That the council resolvo to proceed with the bringing in of the additional water supply from the head waters of the Waitati and tho Leilli, and that tho necessary steps required by law bo taken forthwith to enable the council to acquire the water ; and for that purpose and for preventing the contamination of such sources of supply, the' Water Committee be authorised to take such steps as may bo necessary to acquire the land forming tho watershed of such supplies or so much thereof as will enable tho council to prevent the future pollution of the supply." The speaker went on to say that he trusted that the council would give their unanimous consent to the proposition embodied in this motion. The question as to whether it would bo necessary to build a reservoir in connection with the supply was a matter that could bo hereafter discussed. If the higher suburban boroughs joined tho city in an extenued water supply, doubtless an additional reservoir'would be required. That the higher boroughs would one day go in for such n supply was equally without doubt, and whon they had come to a decision in that direction, .the question of the reservoir could be discussed. So far as tho city proper was concerned, they had sufficientwater to meet present demands, but it was necessary to not only mako provision for the higher levels, but to be prepared to meet the tho extra demand that would bo entailed when a drainatro schemo was embarked upon. _ Cr Ciiisholm seconded the motion. In doing so ho stated that lie had expected the chairman of tho Water Committee to have thrown some light upon the discrepancies which

existed in the reports winch ha.d been furnished on the subject by the engineers. VV itli a view at nil events of placing himself in a position of having as much information on tlio subject as possiule, he (the speaker had looked up the whole of the reports which had been submitted to tho council for some considerable time past, and he was pleased to see that the chairman of the Water Committee did not now seem to attach the samo importance to the objections urged by Mr Blair against the proposal to take a supply from the head waters of tho Waitati and the Leith that he formerly did. "When the .proposal came first before the council, the chairman of the Water Committee took very great exception to it on the samo ground upon which Mr Blair had based his exceptions—namely, the 'amount that would have to be expended in settling riparian rights. Sir Blair took a wholly exaggerated view of the sum that would be required to extinguish the riparian rights. He held that this would involve a greater expenditure than what would be required to complete a scheme to bring in a supply from the Silverstraim. According to Mr Hay's estimate, the riparian rights would mean a cost of £6000. It was generally conceded that this was the outside sum that the riparian rights would cost, and it was a very small sum compared to the expenditure that would bo involved in bringing in a supply of water that would serve the higher parts of the city and suburbs. 'Regarding the differences in the reports of Mr Hay and Mr Rey,nolds, the former provided for a catchment area of 3170 acres, and Mr Reynolds for a catchment area of 2640 acres. The cause of the difference in this point lay in the fact that Mr HaY suggested that the water should be got at a much lower level than that suggested by Mr Reynolds, and consequently Mr Hay's proposal embraced a larger area. Mr Hay, it would be observed, took no notice of tho normal yield per day, which Mr Reynolds gave as 2,300,000 gallons. The next point was rather startling, and wanted, looking into. Both, engineers gave, tho drought yield. Mr Hay estimated it at 633,830 gallons, from a catchment area of 3170 acres, and Mr Reynolds fixed it at 809,000 gallons, with a less catchment area—26+o acres. The reason why Mr Reynolds' s estimate was larger than that of Mr Hay's, although the catchment area was smaller, was because of the different systems of gauging adopted by each of the gentlemen. Mr Hay took his gauging solely from Ross Creek, and based his calculations on that as to the yield.of the whole area. Mr Reynolds, on the other hand, gauged the various creeks forming the sources of the Waitati and the Leith, and based his calculations accordingly. As an evidence of the correctness of the methods adopted by Mr Reynolds, he had another engineer gauging the Ross Creek, while he was employed gauging the other creeks,, with the result.that lie found, that to take the Ross Creek as a basis was misleading.. 'Although lie agreed with the chairman of the Water Committee that the storage reservoir need not be the subject of discussion that evening, ho might say, in respect of the fears entertained by some engineers as to the bursting of the reservoir. on tho proposed site, that • there.was about as much likelihood of that happening as of Laks Wakatipu bursting its bounds. The site proposed seemed to have been specially designed by Nature for a reservoir, and this fact was generally recognised by councillors when they visited the locality to inspect it some time ago. . •

Cr Denniston said he was not going to make any comparison between the two schemes proposed by the engineers. He quite approved of Cr Carroll'b" motion, and would like to endorse what Cr Cliisholm had said about the bogey which had been raised about bursting reservoirs. In the present state of science it was ridiculous to cay that a reservoir could notbe built of masonry that would withstand the pressure it would be subjected to. As to riparian rights, he thought that was another bogey. Mr Blair had over-estimated the sum '■squired for the purchase of riparian rights in his day, and had understated the water rates, as the council knew to their cost. He (Cr Denniston) was of opinion that a smaller sum than that mentioned would be sufficient to extinguish these ripnrian rights. In this matter they had failed to do justice to Mr Ban\ for there was no' engineer in the town who ■ . had I devoted so much time and attention to the subject as that gentleman had. He;(Or Denniston) thought the proposed step was a wise one, and the preliminary steps very necessary.

; Cr Dawson was inclined to think that Mr Reynolds's scheme was the. best one they could get for. the .city—that, was the reservoir tslieme. If a, scheme of sanitation was adopted they;. ; would, require double the supply'they had, and he was afraid that Mr Hay's scheme would not give a sufficient quantity. The large reservoir Mr Reynolds suggested would allow all'sediment to settle.; He thought the, suggestion of earthworks was alia -bogey, nncl maintained that if proper masonry:-waßj used; in the, construction the - reservoir. would be everlasting. The council; should acquire the catchment of these areas, aa they were now as low as they wore likely to be, but he did not suppose that any scheme would be carried out; for a year or two. Cr Haynes could not help saying that he hod: a feeling' something like Cr Cliisholm, as .-.he had expected the chairman, of the Water-Commifteo would trot out .the other source of supply. Cr Carroll: There,is time enough for that.

Cr Haynes said he commended Or Carroll for his good senee in supporting the. present proposal. It was quite true that ho had previously opposed this supply, and he (Or Haynea) must commend' him for. the very sensible motion he had brought forward. He (Cr Hayries) was not'going to discuss Mr Hay's and Mr Reynolds's proposals then, because he did not think the time had arrived to do so. He would simply urge that the council acquire these rights, and considered that.those living on the higher levels should be considered, seeing that they paid the same rates ..as others. As far as supplying the higher levels was concerned, he did not see that there was so much difference between the two schemes. Mr Reynolds proposed an enormous reservoir, and Mr Hay did nothing of the sort. If ho had .the schemes would have both come to the same thing." He entirely disagreed with the matter of a. burst being a bogey. The Ross's Creek reservoir was a 50-million gallon .one, and Mr Reynolds pro-' pbsed to build one of 142 million gallons, That was an: enormous quantity of water to store in a water channel leading into a densely populated city, even though the structure was of masonry. He would not go into the earthquake theory—it was sufficient that. they had had scares with the small Ross Creek reservoir. If he should have the honour to be a member of the council when the supply was under consideration, he would not support the. construction-of-a reservoir of ouch enormous capacity as Mr Reynolds suggested, ' because'he thought a smaller one would be sufficient. If it was not in Mr Barr s report, Mf Barr had told him that thero.were a. number of places about the watershed—five or axwhere storages could be constructed. It would be infinitely'better that these should be utilised, lather than such an enormous reservoir should be constructed when there was certain danger. He thought the thanks of the council wero. due to Mr Barr for the trouble he had been at in the matter of a water supply. He did not know that the council would have taken the matter up at all if it had not been for that gentleman. He had given some very valuable reports, and he (Or Haynes) had no doubt that the council would, later "on, recognise his services. The present proposal was a reisonable a,nd a sensible one, and was a step that, possibly, should have been taken sooner, but it was better taken late than never. With regard to riparian rights, he did not thmk that would bo a serious matter, and if the committee wero given power to deal with them, he did not think they (the committee) would acquire the rights and commit the council to a heavy expenditure without consulting them. Cr Park willingly supported the motion brought forward, and was very pleased that it had emanated from the chairman of the Water Oomittee. This matter had given the committee a great deal of thought and trouble. They had certainly delayed bringing it before the council for many months, but that delay was not due to the committee. It was merely because they had to get particulars and data to so on, so as to ascertain in what way they should bring it before' the council. With regard to.Cr Can-oil's pet scheme of Wharo Flat, he (Cr Park) thought he had only proposed that so as to get an immediate supply* and go about the Leith and Waitati supply cautiously. He (Cr Park) did not think he wished the council to take the Whare Flat supply and let the matter stop there, so that lie was not antagonistic to the Waitati supply.—(Cr Carroll: "Hear, hear.") As tho result showed, he had favoured the latter. His (the spoakor's) reason for supporting; the schema was that it would give tho city a permanent water supply for thirty to forty thousand inhabitants. Mr Hay had, he'understood, only been asked to give a scheme for a temporary supply, and his scheme,, as far as it went, provided for 2500 on the upper levels. Tho motion moved by Cr. Carroll would ultimately leadto them getting a'permaneht supply from the Waitati and Water of Loith, and tho water supply for the city would thon be done with for ever. When the matter of what scheme was to be considered, ho would be in a position to speak again. Crs Christopher, Howlison, and Crust all supported the motion, tlio latter saying that ho did not think at the same time they should drop the matter of bringing in an extra supply from the Silverstrcam,

Cr Carroll, in replying, Baid nobody had over heard him express an opinion against taking in tho head waters of tho Waitati, but, so far as Whare Flat was concerned, ho was as much in favour of it as ever. They had had a copule of dry summers, and there should bo no time lost in going- into the eonSO WHOLESOME. Wolfe's Schnapps is a superb stomachic. It helps delicate stomachs, and fortifies the system against chances of climate. v*

sideration of the construction of a reservoir. He thanked the council for their kindly rcforences to himself, and intimated his intention of bringing the matter of the Whare Flat supply before the council again by notice of motion, possibly for the meeting after next.

The motion was then put and carried unanimously.