WATER FAMINE ENDED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13899, 24 January 1916, Page 4

WATER FAMINE ENDED.

WELLINGTON LEAKAGE. - x FAULTY MAIN DISCOVERED. Wellington has just awakened from an experience which threatened to develop into a. nightmare, v*, Avith .•-. disagreeable complications. On Wednesday it appeared suddenly that the water supply was failing badly. The greater part of the city supply comes : froM Wainui -o-ma-ta, 14 miles away, among the hills above the head of the harbour, a comparatively s*.mall supplement, coming from dams and the reservoir, at Karori; When the Symptoms first developed, tlie Brooklyn reservoir ran' down *m a threatening fashion, and indications Aver<S that ''citi.zens had suddenly increased -'their- ■confeuniptioa to an outrageous allowaiice of 80 gallons a head a day. Any ijuestioil of tlie failure of the'' Wainui-o-mata sup^ply disappeared on the city engineer's assurance that far from .being- below the average, the supply at the dam Avas remarkably,,good. -Water went into tlie mains, nut, failed to appear, at- the taps m the back, v kitchen_. INDUSTRIAL CONCERNS CLOSE DOWN. s There were many strainge incideiits. Occasionally people confessed to borrowing; a pot of Avater and using it to boil au egg, shave, or Avaish faces. Singular tricks were played by the supply. Certain houses appeared "as oases m the desert, aiid were the most popular m the neighborhood. A large part of the town did not share the trouble, and -many ci tigers . scarcely knew, of the inconvenience tlieir fellows suffered — inconvenience which , even went, so 'far as closing doAvn certain industrial!- concerns. There was some fear that tire miglit break out iri the "dry".; area, whicli would have been a most serious matter, but happily it did not eventuate. • ..Meanwhile,- of course, the engineer's staff was m a state bf intense activity. Vain search was made along the pipeline -. for evidence of the breakdown. Sriridry ihvent-ve- spirits tried to recdllect Avhat they had read of electrical diViriers,' and" if .hazels gve\v m Wellington they doubtless would have been badly cut aboul for dowsing rods. -Quite suddenly, hoAvever, the mystery —one of tlie most baffling the city has experienced— collapsed. At the north side of, Basin Reserve, thp main Crosses a large, culvert, Avhich rcuis along the old canal reserve to tlie harbour,- and hero the trouble was uneaa-thed. As soon aa the trouble occurred men belonging to the City Council staff Avere told otf to explore the nettAvork of sewers and culverts under the city, and also inspect tho outlets along the Avaterfront. These subterranean explorers had earned out their tusk ceaselessly, .and Avere out all .night. In the morning some of tliem examined the underground storhvwater culvert already mentioned, and on opening tlie manholes they found that the culvert, Avhich is practjcally only m full use m Avet weather,., was quite a rushing torrent. One man entered the manhole and discovered water pouring into tlie culA*ei*t like a waterfall . where the main crossed it. Soon pick .and shovel men.. were. hard, a.t --work digging up the footpath and roadway along the line, of the main. The offending main was laid bare. Sir Ward, avlio has been the corporation turncock for very many years, remembers a similar leakage Borne iJb yeara ago m the identical spot. Un that occasion a good deal of investigation was also necessary before it could be traced. Qn© effect of the shortage of water has been to enable the Hospital Board to discover a storage reservoir, which has been apparently forgotten. • At a meeting of the board the house steward stated that the trouble had been very acute m the nurses' home and fever wArd; He added that spine time ago a concrete reservoir, holding 30,000 , gallons,, had been built on the ground adjoining the hospital, bjit, as it was thought tbatj the Morton dam, would oyercome ariy difficulty, tanfc had never been connected np with ; the ijnain. He recommended that a cover should

> be placed on the tank, and tho reservoir i connected Avith the main by meter. The i board, Avithout discussion, decided to > carry put the work. The little reservoir L was definitely known to be a solid entity ' —though nearly etripty — but it was difficult to asc^ai-n that, It., had offlciallv any existence. The boai-d's chairman » Koemed surprised at the sriggestion that i t he board's assets included such a reseiv i A r oir — which was constructed several • years ago— and it Avas some time be- > fore the nlystery could bo cleared up.