The hunt for water in pioneer years
Water is a topic close to the thoughts of almost all New Zealanders and certainly residents of South Taranaki.
We drink it, we wash in it, and we will boat on it and fish in it.
We complain if we have too much of it and complain when we have too little.
When Hawera’s first mayor, Mr McGuire, made his introductory speech at the first Borough Council meeting, water headed his wish list. It was both first and second in his mind: drainage of the town’s area and a piped water supply for all residents.
Sadly there were so many other needs for the newly-fledged borough to address and they all required rates money.
Local citizens in 1882 received their water, for the homes and businesses, from wells dug in their garden.
However, though there was sufficient water for the little more than one thousand residents, they were all sharing ground water, soak holes and privies, few had dug wells deeper than 25 feet towards flows of artesian water.
Well diggers were sought after, they were strong fearless men who were attended by a trusted companion who lifted the buckets of stones and soil to the surface and watched out for weak places in the well wall.
One digger refused to dig without his wife present who would pull up the spoil and guard the well-site.
Soon mechanical drills became available taking away the danger of dangerous gases accumulating in the bottom of the well, such as during one frightening event on Mr AA Fantham’s farm when it proved difficult to extract the digger from the bottom of the hole.
Wells, dug for the fighting of fires, may still be rediscovered in Hawera’s business area by builders repairing the floors of local premises, such as one unearthed beneath Robertson’s Pharmacy.
Many people suggested local rivers and ponds as source for the town’s water.
Some suggested Lake Rotokare. It was well elevated above Hawera and not many miles away, but this was dismissed by a farmer who lived close by.
He told a Hawera Star correspondent that ’’in summertime the water becomes warm, nauseous, in taste and smell, with decaying matter’’.
Many residents, in particular Mr James Lysaght of Mokoia, pointed to McKellar’s flour mill on the Tawhiti Stream, now the site of a Silver Fern Farms meat works, as a place where, with the aid of water rams, the water could be forced up to a reservoir that could deliver piped water to Hawera.
These and other suggestions were put on hold until 1895 when the Borough Council adopted Mr Leslie Reynolds CE scheme for water and drainage in Hawera, no doubt encouraged by several disastrous fires in High St.
A poll was taken of ratepayers who endorsed a pipeline to be laid from the Kapuni River to the town and connected with 400 premises.
This was to cost, with the accompanying drainage scheme, £30,000, which was to be raised by a loan.
Mr Reynolds assured interested citizens that without the water from Kapuni they would not be able to build a swimming pool.
The Volunteer Fire Brigade welcomed the new mains water for fire-fighting and the Railways Department was able to dismantle their windmill water pump at the Princes Street crossing for attachment to the new Borough mains.
Mr Reynolds was pleased to hand over the completed work to the Borough Council on the 15th of April 1901 for a cost very close to the original estimate.
Hawera citizens could now boast that they too had a modern water and drainage scheme to service their up-to-date and bustling town. Puke Ariki cares for more than 110,000 images in the Swainson/ Woods Collection that were generated by the New Plymouth based businesses, Swainson’s Studios and Bernard Woods Studio, between 1923 and 1997.
Many of the photographs are still unidentified.
Check our efforts out online at http://vernon.npdc.govt.nz/ simpleSearch.jsp
If you can help identify this week’s photo, please phone the Taranaki Research Centre, 06 759 6060, or email the team at images@npdc.govt.nz