THE CITY WATER SUPPLY.
BEGINNING OF A BIG WORK
The Corporation of Wellington has long had in contemplation an extension of the water supply. Those citizens who live on the higher levels of the city dream of a good time coming when it may not be a sin to steal a morning bath in the hot season of the year, or to succour a thirsty garden plot whose loveliness has faded beneath the rays of the summer sun — when, in fact, there will be good water in plenty all the year round. That happy time is said to be surely coming.
It is true that the scheme which is to perform all this is but in embryo. The site for a second reservoir at Wainui has been chosen, but the consulting engineers are now considering the whole water supply question, and are preparing a report for the Council. Still, yesterday saw what is practically the beginning of this important work, in the turning of the first sod on the site for a meter-house in connection with the substitution of a pipe main for the leaky concrete race which now carries the water from the dam to the line of pipes that leads into the city.
An excursion had been arranged by the City Council to celebrate the event, and a fine day was hoped for. The hour for starting was 9 in the morning, at which time sundry Councillors and their wives met at the Corporation offices. Outside a soft rain was falling, blown across the city from the western hills. Weather prophets went out at frequent intervals, came back, and prophesied that “it wouldn’t amount to much.” Wainui, rung up by telephone, reported that it was “fine, but cloudy.”
A vote was taken, and the “Ayes had it,” so the telephone was set a-ringing, hangers back were rounded up, and about 10 o’clock a party of twenty-six set out for Wainui in six cabs. The rain was left behind at Kaiwarra, found again at the Hutt, beaten off once more at Waiwetu, but caught on the hill road and kept in chilly embrace for the rest of the way and the day. It was annoying, to say the least of it, and meant the abandonment of a substantial and interesting part of the day’s programme.
When the party reached the enclosure at the waterworks and left its cabs behind it, there was the option of a stroll through the sodden paddocks, or a promenade under the grove of pines at the southern head of the dam. The pines were preferred.
Luncheon — served at the house of the custodians, Mr. and Mrs. Quaintance, who, with the members of their family, waited upon their guests with the greatest hospitality — led to the reflection that perhaps things were really not so bad as they had at first seemed, and presently a move was made in the direction of the site of the ceremonial that had occasioned the outing.
This was within the enclosure, a little to the south-west of the custodian’s house. The dam is to be tapped close to the spot where the feeder of the existing race is situated. But the piping is to be laid some 8ft deeper, which means that so much more water will be available, should occasion demand its use, and the pressure will be increased to some extent. In any event, a considerable waste of water now caused through the leaky condition of the present race, which has been in use since the construction of the dam, will be saved.
The condition of that race has been a source of some anxiety — if it happened to collapse the city would have to do without its Wainui for some time. The new work, which means the laying of about a mile and a quarter of piping at a cost of some £12,000, will be begun at once and completed before the end of the coming summer, and it will then become a matter for consideration whether the old race shall be maintained further or be abandoned.
The pipes are now being carted into position, and a house for the accommodation of workmen is in course of erection. His Worship the Mayor (Mr. J. G. W. Aitken) applied himself with the energy of an expert horticulturist to the task of “turning the sod,” after which the party was duly photographed by Councillor Barber, and was then left to its own devices.
Some braved the wet and went ferning; other venturesome spirits went in a boat on the beautiful stretch of water which constitutes the dam, the morose went back to the pines and inwardly damned the weather.
The “assembly” was sounded at 3 p.m., when Mr. and Mrs. Quaintance gave the party afternoon tea, and then goodbyes were spoken and the cabs and their passengers trailed homeward to the city.
