WATER SUPPLY.

Southland Times, Issue 3294, 10 January 1879, Page 2

WATER SUPPLY.

«. Editor' Times, — Councillor Johnson seems to think that he has made out a case in favor of the Dunsdale scheme by saying that a single ward could pay the interest on the money proposed to be borrowed. Perhaps it could ; but there is no getting over the fact thai £100^000 at 7 per cent, means £7000 per annum ; and with the amount required-for maintenance of the works, that is just about equal to four shillings on the pound on last year's .valuation. No doubt the town will be better .able to afford it in a few years than it is at present. But why incur an expense of £100,000 if one-fourth of the sum will do as well? 'Get the town .service, or " reticulation," as the engineers call it, exactly the same as if the Dansdale scheme were to be carried out ; "but instead of laying 30 miles of -costly mains to the Dunsdale,- try if 30 yards of a shaft sunk in the gravel will not yield all the water required , for many a year to come, . with the aid of i a pump and a 10-horse power engine. The experiment need hot be costly. The difference will .be simply £75,000 as the total outlay for a complete pumping scheme need not exceed £25,000. Should the shaft not yield enough, we could but go on to the Dunsdale after all.; and except the moderate amount spent iv sinking the shaft there would be nothing' lost-. Whatever the late borings proved or failed to prove, they made one fact abundantly clear, viz. : That, the supply of water in the gravel beds is practically unlimited. I have little or no hope of getting the Dunsdaie party to listen to reason ; they are bent on carrying out their scheme, and they will probably succeed in doing so. But I think it my duty to' place on record my deliberate opinion that it is a piece of senseless ancWieedless extravagance!' The" watej is not good, to begin with, being strongly ting-cd with peat : the height is not sufficient to giye a good force for es-

:tingiiißhingffires'j^'and.'..tlie works .will bo very costly, both, for interest and annual maintenance; "All the time the > very tiling we want; is close at hand, not 30 miles, but more probably less than 30 yards, distant. Yet the Duusdale party are too wise to look for it. „ yMy deliberate Opinion is that, even if the Diinsdale scheme is ' adopted now, it will at some future time be abandoned in favor of the method of 'taking the supply from the gravel. It is no. new or tmtried pTan that- is .recommended. Numbers of large towns in England and the Continent are adopting it ; in some cases even abandoning gravitation schemes in favor of wells. ' It is needless to mix up the question of boring— artesian wells' or tube wells^ with the larger and simpler question of whether or not we are to take our water from the gravel-beds. A s.haft. of the ordinary kind and a 12-horse pump Lrig engine is all that is required J-.tp test the question of supply ; and I feel certain that long before the shaft is sunk" liDOft it \vill be found impossible to keep down ; the j water. ... / '. '• :' ../'.■ .'■"■-■ •-". : • • -I .■shall be told, of .course, that' my opinion, not being a professional one,, is of no value. lam happy to say that I have been permitted by Mr Bruntori, : jVL lnst., C.E., whose high professional'standing will not be questioned, to say that he considers the scheme of pumping from the gravel strata much more promising than ; the L)Unsdaie gravitation scheme, and that it certainly ought to be tried first.; / . ; . . Those who think there is anything at all in what I have advanced ought certainly to Vote affdiiist the borrowing to-day. 'E ven should it: prove necessary to go to the Duusdale as a last; resort^ .there will, be time enough 'for that six hence. But if the: ratepayers . to-dSy decide to authorise the -loan of £100,000, ; it will c ertainly be raised, an d as ■: certainly spent, and; as; I think, Avasted—irrecoverably—in- the attempt to cerry but . the Dunsdale scheme.— -I am, &c.y -?T : ' > . ; JpHN R. CrjTHBERTSON. Invercarsill, 10th Jan., 1879. „-: •