THE WATER SUPPLY

Southland Times, Issue 20146, 5 April 1927, Page 9

THE WATER SUPPLY

To the Editor. Sir, —On the 27th of this month the electors will have the opportunity of choosing a Mayor and 12 councillors. It is to be hoped there will be a record poll and it will be if the - voters take sufficient interest in their own property and in the men they consider best able to fill the positions. What is wanted is selected men, men who are known to possess the necessary knowledge, training and experience in the various works and business under the council’s control; men who will take an interest in the particular committees of which they are members and make a point of visiting, inspecting and becoming conversant with the details of the work under their supervision, not like some of the present councillors who have never taken sufficient interest in the department to which they have been allotted by attending, seeing and learning for themselves the actual conditions and necessities required to obtain the maximum effect at the minimum cost. Take the Water Supply Committee as a sample as to the utter want of knowledge

concerning this important and vital matter. It is questionable if the committee as a body ever attended at the works to see and hear the report of the officer in charge as to the reason why there was a shortage of water. They would have found that it was the fault of the principal pump owing to its being incorrectly fixed that was the cause of the trouble and not for want of water below, as we were told by the authorities who should, and it is now generally known, knew such was not the case. Things

will never be better until the waterworks are under the control of a mechanical engineer, not a civil engineer. In proof of this, the civil engineer who had supreme control reported to the committee that it was impossible to reduce the cost of pumping or obtain more water from the underground source. Fortunately, however, the mechanical engineer set to work and successfully accomplished what was reported to be impossible, as more water was obtained than ever before and at a cheaper rate. Since when there has been no civil engineering but the supply has been increased by 35 per cent, and at a comparatively reduced cost. Therefore the Dunsdale scheme was carried at the last poll by ignorance of the public not knowing the true facts and being mis-

led by the misrepresentations of those in power and who were known to be in favour of a water supply by gravitation.

To bring water from a height down a hill is an everyday job for a civil engineer because, being thoroughly understood by him he naturally recommends this method, he does not. study or care for those who have to foot the bill, that matter does not concern him in the least.

To raise or bring water up an entirely different class of man is required, and this comes within the province of a mechanical

Why a civil engineer is appointed to control a mechanical one passes comprehension, he might just as well be placed in charge of the power works, gasworks or the public gardens when the same result would follow as has occurred at. the waterworks. Any civil engineer would be only too glad to be relieved of what to him is a source of trouble owing to its being quite out of his line or experience. A man to whom the writer was speaking did not agree with me. He argued that what was required was a “waterworks engineer.” When asked what new kind of man that was, how and where did he learn his business and where was such a man to be found, he had to reply he did not know. It was stated that in the first place it was a three-man job. No. 1 had to be a competent well-borer to find out if water could be obtained, at what depth and the probable quantity. If the borer’s report was satisfactory his work was done. Secondly, a consultation should be held between a civil engineer and a mechanical one. If it were decided that an open well was the most suitable the civil engineer would take charge of that and then his part would be done. Then the mechanical engineer comes on to the scene and he either devises or recommends the appliance for raising the water to the surface, then his part is completed insofar as obtaining the water is concerned. But, as the pumping has to be kept going, surely it is a mechanical engineer who should be put in charge of it, and when it became necessary to increase the supply of water it should be he that ought to be consulted as to the best

method to get it. In the same manner as the gas manager, who, to increase the quantity of gas adds another bench of retorts. There is no such person as a waterworks engineer. A man may be engineer-in-charge of the waterworks, but it does not follow that either of the three above mentioned men can be classed a waterworks engi-

If the system recommended by Mr Sturrock, at one time town engineer, had been followed there would never have been any trouble, but unfortunately the then council ignored his advice and have been more or less in trouble ever since. Mr I. M. Stewart proved this recently most conclusively.

It is to be sincerely hoped that the new councillors will listen to and take the advice of well-borers and mechanical engineers in any future additions to, or alterations in connection with, our water supply for this much is absolutely certain that the available quantity of underground water has never been properly tested yet owing to, as before stated, that councillors invariably ignored sound advice of men who have made it a lifelong study. The old saw says there’s no one so blind as those who won’t see, which in this case could be altered to deafness and hearing. There are two sides to the water supplyquestion which should be remembered by the voters at the coming election, namely, the costs. If the water is brought in from the Dunsdale £150,000 will have to be borrowed, for which £7,500 per year will have to be sent out of the country as interest therefore lost to us for ever.

Assuming for the sake of argument that pumping from underground cost the same or even a thousand or two more per year for the same quantity of water, the whole of this money would remain in our own district and most of it spent in the town. The recent Exhibition was placarded with the slogans. “Buy New Zealand goods,”

“Support local industries,” etc. Now we have a factory for producing power in the form of electricity at Monowai and, seeing we have to pay for this factory whether we use the power or not, is it not more businesslike to use this power and so get some return for our money? In addition to the seven thousand odd pounds for interest alone on the Dunsdale scheme we shall have to pay through the rates the £4,500 we now pay the Power Board, making the cost of the Dunsdale up to £12,000 annually. Electors should think for themselves and select men who will take more interest in the town’s welfare than has been the case with some of those elected in the past.—l am, etc., JAMES STEWART.