Hill. — The Artesian Well System of Hawke's Bay. 283 



in the Poverty Bay District, he having sunk the famous well at 

 Makaraka, four miles from Gisborne, in the year 1877, which, 

 in addition to providing a fair water supply, throws off sufficient 

 luminous gas to be employed on special occasions for lighting 

 the hotel near by. 



It is estimated that there are in Napier and the surrounding 

 district not fewer than three hundred artesian wells. I am 

 inclined to think that the number is under-estimated, as I find 

 that within the Hastings Borough boundaries there are at least 

 ninety wells; and Mr. J.N. Williams, Mr. Coleman, and Mr. 

 Tanner have fifty others between them. But the estimate is 

 quite sufficient for my present purpose. These wells have a 

 varying flow, dependent in a great measure upon the diameter of 

 the tube or bore, as it is technically termed, which is driven 

 into the ground by means of a heavy weight until the water-bed 

 is reached. The flow of water, however, is not proportional to 

 the diameter of the tube bores. Thus a pipe of 2-inch bore 

 has been known to give a flow of water averaging nearly 

 60 gallons a minute, whilst a 3-inch pipe never exceeds, 

 under the most favourable conditions, a flow of 100 gallons 

 a minute ; the proportion being in these cases as 3 to 5, whilst 

 the area of the bores is in the proportion of 4 to 9. The cause 

 of the diminished flow in the larger pipes is to be accounted for, 

 so I imagine, by the fact that the friction produced by the move- 

 ment of the water in its underground course through the shingle- 

 bed where it is found retards the rate of supply much more in 

 the larger pipes than in the smaller ones. 



The Napier Borough water supply is provided for by means 

 of sis artesian wells, four of them having a 3-inch bore, 

 and the others a 2-inch bore. The estimated quantity of 

 water which flows daily from these wells is set down at 

 420,000 gallons, or an average of nearly 50 gallons a minute for 

 each well. Now, if we take 50 gallons as the average flow per 

 minute for each of the 300 wells which I have supposed as 

 flowing throughout the Heretaunga Plain, the daily water 

 supply will amount to 21,600,000 gallons, and the annual 

 supply to the enormous number of 8,884,000,000 gallons, or 

 say 40,000,000 tons, the greater portion of which is allowed 

 to run to waste, or is employed for irrigation purposes. 



The exceeding value of the artesian water supply to the well- 

 being of the people in Hawke's Bay has been well exemplified 

 during the past year or two. As we are all aware, the district 

 has suffered more or less from a diminished rain supply for the 

 past three years, the climax being reached during the year 

 ended in March last. For the twelve months which ended at 

 the close of the first quarter of this year, it appears that only 

 15 inches of rain fell on the Heretaunga Plain about Hastings, 

 whilst in Napier barely 17 inches fell during the same time. 



