Poetry Bay herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 637, 27 February 1879, Page 2

Poetry Bay herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1879.

It would really appear that the inhabitants of the town of Gisborne are as far off from getting a water supply to-day as they were when the place became a settlement many years ago. The difficulties are these : — The rivers from which a supply could be drawn, all flow at a very low level ; so sluggish indeed that at parts of them the stream can scarcely be said to move. A supply by gravitation is then out> of the question. It can only be looked for by pumping, and pumping means costly machinery, constant superintendence, the employment of labor, and a large cost for fuel. For a city such means employed ore quite common. For a small town the expense would be greater than could be borne. Failing the Wairaata River, Mr. | Black was next instructed to visit the Reporigaere Lake. He has done this, and what he says of it will be found contained m his second report, which appears elsewhere m our columns. The Bepongaere Lake has

always been looked upon with something a-kin to a deep mystery. It was the mouth of a volcano. It was bottomless — not to be fathomed. It was believed to penetrate through the bowels of the earth, and come out, or come up again m quite some where else m some other part of the world. The Maoris were said to have had a legend connected with it. Some great chief had been drowned m it, and his wife, weighted down with grief, had plunged into this horrid depth, and the souls of the chief and chieftainess m some way became one, and the abyss of water was m a manner consecrated by what had happened. Perhaps not one person m every twenty who are dwelling m Poverty Bay has seen Lake Repongaere. Everything said of it has been taken for granted. Big fish have been supposed to inhabit the lake, fish known only to seas which wash the shores of distant lands. All these illusions have been dispelled,, and much poetic feeling completely capsized by a bluff, practical, plain-spoken engineer. Mr. Black has been ferried m a boat over every part of the lake. It has a flat bottom, and m no part is it deeper than four feet. It has a mud bottom. The water is not good, but is as good or as bad as any other water procurable for a Gisborne supply. By aid of a wall 250 yards wide, the lake may be made to give a depth of ten or eleven feet ; but this, when brought through pipes into town, would not throw a stream sufficiently high to put out a fire. This could be done by a lofty reservoir and a steam engine ; not without. Still, Mr. Black recommends its use. The fact is, Mr. Black must" have considered he was paid to recommend something, and he has recommended Repongaere m the absence of anything better. The Council will have none of it, and we think the Council right. So then we are as we were. But the Council have not given up hopes. Mr. Black is to go to the Waiamata, threequarters of a mile up stream, and report what can be done there by the aid of a weir or dam. Mr. Black goes somewhat against his will, because he believes the water, if obtained, will be bad water ; not fit to drink ; not fit for washing, but fit to put out a fire should a sufficient pressure be given it. Mr. Black, as an engineer, believes m steam engines of sufficient horse power. He does not believe m windmills. Pernaps it is because Mr. Black is hot a millwright. He does not believe m water-wheel power, where there is no power on sluggish water to move it ; and although Mi\ Black may believe m his bill of charges, which appear high — .£B9 ss. still we have no doubt he has done his best, even although the best must be felt as very dissappointing.

And Gisborne still remains without any prospect of an immediate water supply.