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Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 6

Wellington’s consumption of water for all purposes works out at between 70 and 80 gallons per head, and this has been regarded officially as very extravagant and an unnecessary luxury which the City Council discourages by threats of penalty for those who hose without a meter. Wellington’s average has been far eclipsed by the figures for Napier and Hastings this summer. During the dry spell recently, broken a few days ago, Napier gardeners used the hose so freely that the demand on one day reached 3,000,000 gallons, or 150 gallons per head of population. Hastings people were comparatively sparing and used a few gallons less; but right through December and January the average daily consumption was about 100 gallons per head. Before the earthquake smashed the wells and pumping plant the Napier system could not possibly have supplied such a heavy demand, but the new pumps were not fully taxed at any time last month. Water for Hastings is also pumped, and the electric power consumed in driving the pumps in January was about half the total power consumption for private and commercial lighting and power for the whole borough.