THE NEW PUMP—AND SOME REMINISCENCES.

Southland Times, Issue 20201, 11 June 1927, Page 9

THE NEW PUMP—AND SOME REMINISCENCES.

To the Editor. Sir, —At the last council meeting it was announced that the Rees-Roturbo pump ordered last October is due to arrive at the port of Dunedin on July 24. The pump was ordered as an emergency measure and was to have been shipped twelve weeks from date of order, i.e., last January. It was intended to test throughout last summer the potentialities of the present underground supply. 1 understand the pump is to be installed in No. 4 bore and is to deliver not less than 35,000 gallons per hour, 17,000 gallons per hour more than the present pump delivered last minimer (vide Mr Gumbley’s report). On the same authority we learn it will be necessary to sink another bore at an estimated cost of £4430 to augment the supply during next summer. Now, Sir, as the present plant is capable of lifting 1,080,000 gallons daily after prolonged and continuous pumping, the new pump should bring the total capacity of the plant up to 1,488,000 gallons per day. Surely, then, the new bore will not be necessary. Will any of those gentlemen who have so assiduously “nursed the water baby” during the past two years tell us—(1) Can the Rees-Roturbo pump with a shaft 95 feet long be installed in No. 4 bore to deliver not less than 35,000 gallons per hour? (2) Will it be capable of lowering the water level in No. 4 bore to within 20 feet of the bottom of the bore—that is 45 feet lower than at present ? (3) What will be the total lifting capacity of the plant under the above conditions ? (4) As Mr Gumbley has surveyed the underground water-bearing stratum, what will be the yield from the bore which he recommended should be at once sunk? (5) What steps are being taken to prepare No. 4 bore for the installation of the new pump? (6) Will the new pump be in operation by next summer? Now, Sir, I think that these questions, reasonable as they are, will not be answered by the gentleman above referred to or by those who claim to be “civil engineers with a knowledge of mechanical engineering.” In connection with the new pump, it may be of interest to recall that at Mr Miller’s meeting prior to the election one councillor said, in commenting on the pump, “£846 gone west.” The same councillor also said, “Mr Gumbley is a jolly fine fellow.” Quite so! So are they all “jolly fine fellows.” Let us piously hope that the new pump will prove to be “a jolly fine pump.” But as Sandy said, “I hae ma doots,” and as Asquith further said, Let us all “wait and see.”—l am, etc.