E 
38 Transactions.-— Miscellaneous. 
in which case the shaft need not be deeper; from the bottom of the shaft a 
drive should be put in towards Mount Eden, till the lava or scoria beds are 
reached, when an abundant supply of water would be sure to be inet with. 
This, flowing through the drive to the bottom of the shaft, would be pumped 
up into the reservoir. By this method no piping would be required for 
transmission of water to the reservoir, beyond that necessary for the 
pumping mains. 
The other site, and perhaps the better one, would be by the side of the 
proposed railway to Riverhead, at the bottom of the valley between the 
proposed site of the reservoir and Mount Eden. The advantages here would 
be, that the railway would be available for carriage of machinery and other 
material necessary for the erection of works, and coals would be cheaply 
conveyed for boiler purposes. The depth of this shaft would be less, and the 
drive towards the basin would be materially shortened, which latter advan- 
tages alone would compensate for the pipes which will be necessary to convey 
the water to the reservoir. The shaft, in this case, would probably penetrate a 
layer or two of lava: it will be advisable to avoid it as much as possible, to 
save cost, and sink on the verge of the lava, and thus get all the shafting and 
driving through the soft tertiary rocks. 
That water may be obtained from Mount Eden is already proved, indepen- 
dently of theory, by the success of Mr Seccombe's well, which supplies his 
brewery on the Kyber Pass Road. This well is only a moderate depth 
down. 
There is yet another point to be touched upon, and that is, the volcanic 
eracks in the earth's crust, which must necessarily exist with a series of 
volcanoes such as occur here ; for it is probable that, after the first outburst, 
other volcanoes started along the cracks, and the number kept increasing till 
the number of vents created were suflicient for the emission of the pent up 
gases and molten lava. Perhaps it is owing to the large number of volcanic 
centres that have existed near Auckland, that they have been so short-lived, 
and that none of them are now active—many have been the fires, but they 
have burnt themselves out the sooner. That the cracks existing between 
these craters are eapable of acting as water channels is proved by the existence 
of Lake Takapuna (an old erater), North Shore; for how otherwise can this 
lake be supplied with water than from its connection with other volcanic 
centres? То test this, a drive should be started from the pumping shaft at 
right angles to a line between two craters ; this would be sure to eut the 
connecting channel between them, and drain them of their waters and others 
connected with them, and who knows but we may yet bring Fake Takapuna 
waters into Auckland by this means. 
The advantage of using these volcanic waters (if we may term them thus), 
