THE DRAINAGE WORKS.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8081, 18 December 1906, Page 2

THE DRAINAGE WORKS.

MB SIMS INTERVIEWED. EVERYTHING SATISFACTORY. It has b 'eu said that the man who can tiud moat time at his disposal for any fresh c.ill, is ho whose time is most fully oocupied. So a representative of the Waikato lijies Lund Mr 8. B. Sims, the Town Clerk and Birough Engineer of Hamilton, most ready to spue the hoar necessary to explain to him thoroughly the details of the drainage works now in progress .

There is no neoesslty for us to enlarge in any way up m tLa urgency that existed for suoh a schema ; bulKm is that the reproaoh of the past hn now baen wiped out, and the town h*s awakened to its duty in this respeot. Mor is it necessary or expedient for us to recount the stops tak.ju during tua p»at, for this wuuld piovo exaction on ourselves and wearisome to our readers. Enough has been s>id when it is reojroo I that there 15 in the Horough otiioe a relic of the dim and inibty past m the =h;ipe of a scheme drawn up by Air \V. D. Oaujpoell in 1882. In 1901 Mr H. Metcalf, of Auosland, prepared preliminary plans, and two years later Mr J. tfoylan, also of Auokiand, was axked to prepare detail plans. Then in July I'JUo, Air S. 11 Sims, of the Wellington city engineer's 1 tlhe, was appointed Borough Kuginear at Hamilton. Une of tne cocaitions of his appointment was the carrying out of loan works, totaling some X21.00U (including aaleyards XIWOU, streets £13,1)00, drainage 455000, waterworks extension Xi')M). Hia soneme for drainage worKs, it may be meutioued, as a coincidence, as tiif existence of such a plan was then unknown to Mr Sims, follows the general lines laid down by Mr C .mpbell. Owing to the configuration of Hamilton, it was necessary to have two separate systems, that known as Mo. 1 taking in the western side of Victoria-street from the railway to the Hamilton Hotel, wbeuoe the mains paee down Marlborough-street, diagonally to the septic tank near the river boatsbeis. No. 2 system takes in the whole of the lowlying portion of the town and may be briefly descnbed as an oblong having as boundaries Collingwood-sstreet ou the north, Milton-street on the west, Thackeray and Knox-streets on the south, and Alexandra-street (the proposed street batween Cotlingwo.id and Hood-streets) on the east. That portion west of Victoria between Garden Place and the Commercial Hotel is connected with this system, as are also Hood, Angelsea and Clarence-streets. The nine stoneware pipes used for the laterals junction at a point behind tne corner of Angelsea and Knox-streets, from thenco 12 Oement pipes will ooivey the sewerage to the septic tank bet.vean Mr A. G. Tibbutt's and the IHrmi'ton Lawn l'enais Courts, Tneellluent will Le conveyed by cist iron pipes to t ;e Waikato at the mouth of the creek a little be!ow tlie pumping stati 11.

Messrs Ardrewa and Gall have the two contracts, which in/olve the laying of 14,490 feet, or miles of pipes, at a cost of about 45,200.

The septic tanks consist of four chambers; the first, called the sludge chamber, being used for collecting the elllua it, which then passes over concrete baffle walls into chambers two and three. The third and fourth are connected by an opening *t the base of the baffle wail instead of the contents, as iu usual, having to pass over the wall. Iu addition to the bailie walls, there is a scum board in eich of the first three chambers. The tanks have a zt hour capacity each, and provision is made for emptying the contents should anything render this neoessary. As is well-known, ""hen the etlineat oomes out of the tank it is peneotly pure »ud free from germs.

The contracts were signed on September 11th last, aud work was commenced a week or t"'o later with the No. 1 oontract. Since then a little over a mde of pipes has been laid. The t:r;:e ey.oires on March lUb next.

lu v ow of the date of attiiiß recently disclosed in connection with the Cambridge drainage works, the reporter askud Mr Sims for a statement as to supervision and workmanship.

" VVitii regard to whether the work is b"iug doj.i wel ," nai i the Town Clerk, " 1 Lave L.t -ti vary fortuiute in having a tnor.'tighly reliable and competent clerk of works iu Mr Koley, of Auckland. ! certaicly h.ivo an advantage in being always uu the ;j cii.se anything d<>ea go wrong. 1 am '(uito satisfied with the lcaimet in which ih j w >rk is being carried out, and I have no hesitation in saying everything is being done to my entire satisfaction. Up to the pros.nt the contractor has been vory fortunate in tho conditions ho ha:; had to encounter, both as regards exoa.ttion and weather, though now the percolation of '»ator into the trenches is becoming ecmewhai; troublesome. 1 have every confidence that the scheme will be a complete buccoss, but to reap ILc greatest possible benefit it will be absolutely iieC6i,:6.;y that there be <i aite as much and as careful supervision over all work done iu private connections as there is over the present part of the sol erne."

This was distinctly reassuring, but it was as nothing compared to the ocular demonstration atloided the pressman later on, for ho accompanied the Borough Engineer on one of hio dino-t daily tours of inspection. Hire he was s.'.owu the taking of the level of each pip > before being laid, the extraordinary precautious to ensure perfect joints and many other things wiich paused ihe contractor to say that the requirement;: of th« engineer were twenty years ahead of the times. Purely that is praise enough for anyone.