A DAY’S EXCURSION
WELLINGTON TO WAINUIOMATA
SPRING BLOSSOMS AND CONCRETE DAMS
WORK AT SOLOMON’S KNOB
The way from Wellington to Wainuiomata Reservoir just now affords more than its usual amount of interest for any lover of nature whose poetic proclivities enable him to enjoy the natural pictures of green and yellow which the landscape presents. If, in addition, he possesses a utilitarian mind that can appreciate the signs of progress and activity that mark the Wainuiomata and its approaches at this time, he is in doubly happy case.
Yesterday’s trip to the big reservoir was made under the perfect conditions of a bright sun and a soft breeze, and the whole valley from the Upper Hutt to Petone, with the harbour from the near beach to Wellington, was one uninterrupted blaze of glinting sunshine. Viewed from the steep track that scales the dividing range, the Lower Hutt and Petone Valley made a magnificent picture, with the yellow blaze born of an early spring splashed about the green landscape.
Gear Island, a delta in the mouth of the Hutt River, seemed encircled by a ribbon of gleaming silver, and near the foot of the big hill, the Waiwetu, a narrower and more pellucid stream, ran its straighter course to the most easterly part of the harbour. Between these were nestled the homes of the settlers, with paddock after paddock of lush grass surrounded by gorse hedges in full bloom, and here and there a ploughman’s team moving slowly up and down.
POINTS OF INTEREST
But to some points of interest on the journey. The Hutt Main Road, once the muddiest and most vexatious highway this side of Taihape, is now in really good winter order and a monument to the foresight of the civic and governmental authorities who instituted the board of control that has transformed the former sludge channel into the fine thoroughfare it is today.
Along the harbour front near Petone, the “going” is still good, but the Hutt Park railway line is steadily depreciating through lack of use, and the lands which city workers are understood to be yearning to reach by rail remain unsettled. A little way beyond the terminus of the line is Gear Island, across which runs a pipe bridge bearing the city water main from Wainui. It is near this spot that the new pipe and traffic bridge is being built by joint subscription of several local bodies.
Many months were wasted in preliminary negotiations before the work of erection commenced. It seems a great many months since they were concluded and the contractor arrived from a northern town to begin construction. No doubt a good deal of preliminary labour has been done, but it must be much more real than apparent.
Yesterday, as The Post reporter passed by, there were two concrete walls, one on each side of the river, and a couple of piles somewhere between the two. A donkey-engine had been driving one, working a “monkey,” but apparently something went wrong, and fixing it was still a problem a quarter of an hour later.
“Take the strain, Frank; take the strain!” was the cry of the man on the monkey platform to the engine-driver. No doubt the engine-driver did take it, but progress seemed so slow that the observer decided “the strain” must be a goods train, in which case it would be quicker to walk—so he did.
The long and serpentine track to the top of the hill was in good order, but on the other side, its condition was poor, chiefly because of the more shaded nature of the Wainui Valley, the poorer natural drainage, and possibly the greater average rainfall in that vicinity. The extraordinary traffic occasioned by the large construction work now in progress at Wainuiomata has tested the road to a great degree, and in some places, its weak points have been made manifest.
On the narrow track up the valley of the waterworks, the road is at its worst, but it was being repaired yesterday, and now that winter is over, more stable road surfaces are anticipated.
AT “NAVVY-TOWN”
After passing a large receiving house about a mile from the valley’s mouth, where city teams unload their burdens, the wayfarer follows a tramline for a mile or so along a winding way and then arrives at a collection of houses and tents known as “Navvy-town.”
Here live between sixty and seventy men employed by the contracting firm of Martin, Hurrell, and Snaddon on their major undertaking at Solomon’s Knob. The boarded sides and ends of some of the “tents,” and the sight of substantially built huts, seem odd to anyone whose knowledge of camps has been limited to the canvas tent and flour-sack “fly” of the average outback variety of a decade or two ago.
No doubt the outback camp has kept pace with the cities’ advances in civilisation. An incidental proof of commendable progress in some of the minor aesthetic observances was the sight of a navvy carefully shining his boots while the remainder of his dinner hour expired.
WAINUI IS WET
Next to the sandflies, the most persistent thing at Wainuiomata is the rain. A bright young labourer asserted that there had not been three consecutive fine days in the last four months. To ensure he wasn’t thought to be exaggerating, he added, “It was a square dinkum chat he was giving.”
A statistical support for his statement is given by the observations of the City Council’s custodian, who recorded twenty-six showery days out of the thirty-one in July. These conditions have delayed the work of constructing the large dam at Solomon’s Knob, but despite these drawbacks, fair progress has been made. It is hoped that in twelve months, the contract will be near completion.
THE WORKS’ PRESENT POSITION
Many tasks have already been completed. The tram rails have been laid from the receiving shed right up to Solomon’s Knob—a distance of two miles—and a long line of steel pipes, some eighteen inches in diameter, has been laid from the Knob to a point beyond the mouth of the old reservoir.
At present, these pipes carry the muddied water from the works, but eventually, they will form the second arm of the duplicated main that Wellington has been promised.
The most significant work, however, has been at Solomon’s Knob. That eminence has fallen from its high estate, much like the potentate whose name it bears. A massive cavity now spans about 300 feet in length and 65 feet in width where the spur once struck down to the creek. In this space, everything is prepared for the great dam, and two-thirds of the concrete foundations are already in place.
Yesterday was meant to see further progress, but just as the flywheel of the engine was put into action, a wheel of the crankshaft broke. A new wheel is to be installed today, and by the time this article is printed, the entire foundation should be complete.
A BIG DAM
The dam will be 540 feet long, with excavations reaching depths of 28 to 30 feet, with varying widths. The foundations extend down to the bedrock, ranging from 5 feet 7 inches to 8 feet in width.
All concrete work is reinforced with steel rods, and according to the foreman and the clerk of works, the dam is strong enough to hold both the water and the Tower of Babel together.
INCIDENTAL ITEMS
The steel pipes for the new main were manufactured in Auckland by Nephau Fergusson, while spiral pipes were produced in Wanganui. The company has supplied pipes for major contracts in America and typically manufactures them as close to the work site as possible.
There are currently 65 hands employed on the contract, including several tradesmen. The machinery at Solomon’s Knob is housed in a large galvanised iron shed, with separate buildings for carpenters and blacksmiths.
In the past, the contractors faced challenges finding good navvies, but they now have all the hands they need. The plant in use for the contract is valued between £3,000 and £4,000.
The “flying fox,” which carries two tons of gravel at a time, can move about 300 feet per minute, significantly expediting the work.
