Lake Okataina Survey.

Progress, Volume XVIII, Issue 6, 1 February 1923, Page 140

Lake Okataina Survey.

LASTING QUALITY OF TOTARA.

A periphery survey of Lake Okataina and district was made by the late Mr. Henry Mitchell, Government Surveyor, 40 years ago (says the Rotorua “Chronicle”) for the purpose of establishing native claims. Now sub-divisions of the block have taken place, necessitating another survey based on the old pegs. It is an interesting and rather remarkable coincidence that this second survey, 40 years later, should be done by Mr H. Tai Mitchell, eldest son of the late Mr. Mitchell. The pegs were duly located. They are of totara, and as sound as when first used. Some of them were covered with four feet of Tarawera mud, others not so deep, and others again just showing.”

Amongst the interesting historical data collected by Dr. Friend in the Carnegie Scholarship Memoir, published by the Iron and Steel Institute, are some valuable notes on the endurance of cast-iron when buried in the ground. Although for actuarial purposes it' has been common to adopt a conventional life of fifty years for cast-iron water mains, it has long been known that this limit is in general far too low. Some of the gas mains broken in London streets by bombs during the German air raids had been down for well over one hundred years, and apart from destruction by violence, appeared to be good for another century at least. * * *

To remove rust or black ink from white goods, use a warm solution of oxalic acid or weak muratic acid.