AUCKLAND WATER SUPPLY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 11973, 17 September 1906, Page 6

AUCKLAND WATER SUPPLY.

Pipe Company Entertain City Council. Interesting Facts and Figures. Some interesting facts and figures were given by Mr A. Hatrick at Auckland last Monday, when he, as chairman of directors of the Mephan Ferguson Locking-bar Pipe Company, enteretained the Mayor and City Council of Auckland at luncheon at the works at New Lynn. In proposing the toast of "Auckland's New Water Supply," Mr Hatrick said that the hulk of the machinery for the construction of the pipes for the Auckland contract had to come from West Australia, the plates and bars had to come from the Old Country, and it was just twelve months .since thentender was accepted, so that no time l.id been lost. The process was invented by Mr Mephan Fergutou, of Melbourne, pri marily to provide for the Coolgardic witc^ scheme for the West Australian Government, 363 miles of pipes at a co.-.t of £3,000,000; had these pipes been or cast iron they would have had to be lAiu thek and the ro^t would have been .' ¥ /oui the means of the Government. Mr For^isnn had patented the machinery, not the pipes, and before the system was adopted by the West Australian Government itAPs submitted to experts in the Old fou.irrv, who endorsed it. and it was then adopted. Since then it had been iavourably commented on by the highest engineering authorities. The people of Auckland were to be congratulated in having effected a saving of a substantial sum of money by using steel pipes, the saving being about _18,000, and the credit of this was largely due to Mr Carlaw, Iho waterworks engineer. He could say lhi-> now that the ' contract was nearly completed, and in three weeks the pipe-i reipii'-cd would be finished. Mr Carlaw had Win firm, but he had been just. The company had re- j ceived the contract for tho Gisborne Waterworks at £38,000. and he believed that the nearest tender, for cast iron pipes, was .£69,000. In Wanganui thei' tender was .£60.000, and the cost in cast I pipes would have been ,£IOO,OOO. Out of 3700 pipes tested in Auckland so far, only one had refused the test of the enormous pressure placed upon it. The Ferguson pipe carried with it To-day the hall-mark of the British Institute of Civil Engineers. The Mayor (Mr A. M. Myers), in replying, said that a sum of £20,000 had been { saved the citizens of Auckland by the

a matter for congratulation that the members of the syndicate were colonial gentlemen, and they had practically carried out the contract within the time allowed. Their visit had enabled them to see the business-like manner in which the work was carried out. They felt that they were getting value for their money, and he had no hesitation in expressing the hope that tho monetary result had been satisfactory to the Council. The Waitakerei scheme would give five million gallons a day ; tho present consumption »as three and a half millions, and it would probably 1« twenty years before *they would need to enter upon the other parts of the whole scheme. He concluded by proposing "Success to the company." Mr Hatrick returned thanks, and the party then returned to town.