St. Kilda Water Supply.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 24

St. Kilda Water Supply.

A special meeting of the St. Kilda Council was held on Thursday, to consider the question of a water supply for the borough. There were present— Mr G. T. Clarke (mayor), and Or* Allan, Jones, Burman^Hagan, Mitchell, and Stenhouse. The Mayor explained that the South Dun edin Council had sent in a proposal on Tuesday last, and consequent upon that arrangements had been made with the bankers of the borough of St. Kilda for the means of securing the water supply. The offer as contained in the letter from the clerk of the South Dunedin Council,which was before them, was that St. Kilda, should pay the difference in the cosp between a six-inch and an eight-inch, main, and one-half the cost of maintenance. When they were willing to accept these terms, the South Dunedin Council wished to substitute far less favourable ones, and demanded one-half the cost of laying and one-half the cost of thfe maintenance of the main. It was now asserte<jl that the letter from' South Dunedin had been written in mistake ; but it was known that it had been perused by the Mayor of , that borough before being sent, and was precisely in accordance with instructions given by the Council. The terms now demanded were exorbitant.

Or Jonks moved the following resolution, which was carried unanimously:— "That this Council declines the proposal of South Dune lin, as madeto thedeputationfrom this Council on the Ist inst. — viz. to pay one-half the cost of the main pipe through South Dunedin, and one-half the charge of maintenance; and further demands an explanation as to the other letter of the 28th ult., proposing to put down an eight-inch main, providing St. Kilda paid the difference between the six-inch and eight-inch pipe, and then not carrying out the same, but substituting the above for it. This Council f oels satisfied that the South Dunedin Council did order the letter to be sent to the deputation, although that is contradicted by the Mayor and councillors of South Dunedin."

After some discussion, in which the conduct of the South Dunedin Council was characterised as unbusinesslike and discreditable, & vote of thanks was accorded to the Mayor of St. Kilda and to Cr Hagan for the action they had taken against the imposition attempted by the South Dunedin Council; and on the motion of Cr Jones, seoonded by Cr Allan, it was further resolved—" That the Caversham Council be written to asking upon what terms they would inoreate theiv wata-pipe along the

For.bury to the Bay View road to such a size as would be adequate to fully* supply the Borough > of St. Kilda, the Caversham Council to give their opinion whether a nine-inch pipe would answer."

Sale of Aparima Estate. The sale of this well-known properly of the

New Zealand and Australian Land Company

attracted alarge assemblage of agriculturists and others in Ramsay's Hal), Inyercarg'l', on Saturday. These, with few exceptions, were local men, who were most likely to be' able to estimate the qualities,! and values ot the land to be, sold, Mr ;G. E. Martin, who, wielded the hammer, having read the conditions, of sale, stated that his instructions were to Bell, 'and that the reserves placed upon the land were, low. enough to satisfy the most exacting.,, The firßt farm submitted for, competition was ?9, Bifriated on the river flat to the south of, t,he estate., This, it will be seen, excited keen competition. The sale, as compared' with' recent ones, may be classed as successful— 23 of 35 farms having changed hands— while i a large portion of the suburban and township sections .were sold at good prices. ,Sabjoined is a list of the lota sold, fractions of acresJbelng omitted :— . FARMS. Per Acre. Section. Acres. Purchaser. £ s. d. 29 184 Donald M'lntosh 12 10 0 80 ' 122 John Officer 11 0 0 31 37 Donald M'Kinon 12 0 0 32 63 Chas. M'Dougall 10 0 0 23 176 Glendinning 60 0 22 297 Doo 6 2 6 18 45 Thos. Whitaker 5 5 0 19 81 Wm. Hogue 5 10 0 20 83 Jas. Henderson 6 10 0 72 66 W. M'Garvie 4 17 6 10 268 John Smith, jun. 6 0 0 13 106 'Do 410 0 ' 9 41 Rodk. M'lvor 6 15 0 8 63 W. Walker 5 15 0 7 117 Jas. M'lntyre 417 6 , 6 305 Burns and Hammersley 5 0 0 5 203 Wm. Todd ' 4 0 0 4 186 Jas.' Ramsay 3 17 6 2 247 A. R. Hay 2 0 0 3 353 Crean and Bowler 1 15 0 25 420 .Samuel Bagwell it 15 0 16 34 Jae. Quin 6 0 0 12 24 Do 6 0 0 SUBURBAN SECTIONS. , Per Acre. ' Section.. Acres. Purchaser. £ s. d. ' 40 ' 3 Buchanan and Irvine 710 0 39 8 ' Do do 610 0 38 6 Jos. Swap 6 2 6 37 10 E. Atcheson 6 0 0 83> 34, 35 9 , R. Cupples 13 0 0 36A 15 'W. J. Moffetjt 215 0 64 2 . Buchanan and Irvine 10 10 ,0, 0 65 2 , Do do 7 10 0 66, 67 10 Thos. M'Carthy 6 15 0 TOWN ALLOTMENTS, i Sections 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54, J. Hatch, £14 10a, £10, £10, £15 10s, and £8 10s respectively ; 41> 49, and 55, Buchanan and Irvine, £8 10s each ; 48 and 56, E, Atcbeson, £7ieach. " ' Since- the sale the auctioneers have placed the homestead section, of 519 acres, at the upset price of £5 10s per acre, Mr Andrew Hannah " being ' the purchaser. ~ Southland Times, Nautical Items. The following is a list of losses of British and Colo* nisi vessels, 1879-80 (excluding collisions) :— ' ' Founderingfl . '.. ' .. '„190 Strandlngs .. • .. .. 577 , Other causes .. .. .. 44 Missing vejjgeli., „, „ „ 76 886 ' The grain-laden vessels .which have foundered or are missing were as follow :— ! Sailing. . Steam. Total. SSio. Ton. NO. j Ton.j i No. Ton. Foundered 18 10,490, 6 7,360,-24,, ,17,840 Missing .. 12, 9,715, 3 2,974 — 15,, 12,689

■' ' 80 20,205 '' r 9' 10,32* 89, j 30,625! Of the 89 missing and foundered grain-laden vessels 12 were Colonial bailing vessels, with a capacity of 7832 tons. - The number of missing' and foundered grain-laden' vessels in 1879-80 was exactly equal to the average tot the three preceding years:; but it is to be hoped .that a .diminution in the number of losses of grain laden Vessels ,\vitt reward the vigilance which has bten eierclsea in the i>ast year. ' ' ' Altogether ab6ut 2#42 # 49 l p'er cent, of British vessels in existence, and B'6 per cent, of their tonnage were lost during.the ye»r 1879-80,' against. 2-6 of the vessels and 8-6 of the tonnage in 187800 ■>' ' ' i Allowing £15 per ton to be the value of steamships, and £8 per tgntobethe value of sailing ships, it appears that the total value of steamships totally lost was about 1 l'-sth million sterling, and the total value o{ sailing ships lost wad about lj} million sterling, making In all £2,814,338. This approximationisprobablyunder the amount, but assuming that such is the case, and that the cargoes ,lost were double the value of the vessels, we have a total of £8,633,014. The annual loss of property arising from wrecks and casualties to British ships is probably greater than the cost of thS Afghan War, and the loss of life by casualties 'to British ships is higher than the loss of British soldiers in battle, 2-155 being the number reported for the year in question. ' The apparatus invented by Mr Shields, of Perth, for smoothing a broken sea was partially put to the tesfi at Peterhead, and so far as the oil was concerned was highly successful. Though the North Harbour entrance was under the lee, the wind being from the southward, there was much commotion ,and broken water, , which, after pumping for a short time, wag most successfully subdued by the oil, the effect being most apparent as the oil spread itself along the face of the rocks and covered a large area of smoothed water. Whether the apparatus laid down at Peterhead is ou an extensive enough sale will only be ascertained when it is opposed to the furious waves of a north!east gale, but its principle was successful in the experiments under notice.' The year 1881 has been remarkable for the activity of ship-building on the Olyde. Altogether 261 vessels have been launched during that period, with an aggregate measurement .of 341,022 tons. In the year 1880, •which showed the greatest total of any year except 1874, the' tonnage reached 248,80p, or about 90,000 under'the retumß for 1881 ; and the returnß for 1874 are exceeded by between 70,000 and 80,000. An unprecedently large number' of the vessels launched have been built of steel. In 1879 the figures for steel work were 18,000 ; in 1880, 42,000 ; and in 1881, 66,609 tons; and it is worthy of note that a number of the largest vessels have been constructed of the new materials. A new vessel of peculiar construction, named the E. M. Fryer, recently steamed overhand from the Harlem to the Hudson River. The new boat, which is a model of a large one now in course of construction at Hustings (N.Y.), consists of a deck supported by a framework resting on the axes of three hollow globes. The globes being turned by steam power serve at i once aa wheels for propelling the vessel and as buoys which keep the deck always above the water. It being desirable to take the vessel from the temporary yard at Macomb's Dam to the yard at Hastings she was steamed up to Kingsbridge, and was put on land on the west shore of the Harlem River, near 220 th street. It had been intended to steam her right out of the water on to the land, and complete the journey by the use of her own motive power, but the place selected was not suitable for the landing, and not onto was the inclined plane up which she was to travel too steep for her strength, but the ground where she was landed was marshy, and it was with difficulty that she was taken from the water's edge to the firm ground beyond the marsh. Once there, however, she wa9 drawn without trouble across the Kingsbridge road and up to the summit of a slight declivity, and from that point she was easily guided by hand and propelled by her own power to and into the water beyond, and from this point she travelled to Hastings The trip across the land was intended to bhow the advantage the vessel possesses to travel over sandbars or to back off from a sandy shore without external appliances. Ihe absence of friction, attained by placing the boat above the water instead of in it, will enable the vessel, it is claimed, to attain a far greater rate of speed than is poosible for any floating boat in the water, The vessel now building Is to travel on three globes of 2* loet diameter,-