Water - an essential of life

Glenn Ness Falls Piha Valley Photo 1930's J.M. Stewart 

Water, or lack of it ,has been the topic of conversation through the summer season of 2019 and 2020, through COVID 19 lockdown and now with the shortage said to be reaching dire circumstance for Auckland city. Yes, on the Coromandel Peninsula and Hauraki Plains drought has impacted for our farmers. The water supply lakes of Auckland City are said to be drying up. This is not a new issue. This problem has gone on for decades - even back in that part of New Zealand history when Auckland town was first being settled. 

Early Engineer - railways and waterworks

Soon after arrival in Auckland, James Stewart set about the task earning a living and commenced practice as a Civil Engineer. As most business Immigrants to Auckland did, advertisements about his practice, including what could be offered, in the way of services, were placed in newspapers.

This was the beginning of what was to be a very long career. Auckland Province was in need of immigrant surveyors and engineers to develop roading, railways, mill machinery, waterworks and drainage. This was the "age of steam" - water an essential commodity to drive railways, steamers, gold mine batteries, flour mills.

Nevertheless he and others in these professions in the 19^th century not only had to deal with land settlement issues and boundaries, but the continual problems of government lack of funding, natural obstacles of terrain, technical and political obstacles confronting them. Whether it be a new Auckland Provincial railway, a new town or goldmine, a flour or flax mill or a growing Auckland town toward city status- it was always water that was needed and water that flowed through engineering works and community needs.

These were realities that followed Stewart’s career throughout, but ones that were adapted to in the many Civil Engineering projects.

Auckland’s Water Supply 1859.......

Auckland, in 1859, was the seat and capital of Colonial Government, as well as the main town of the Auckland Province. Here, decisions for settlement, roading, railways and river transport were made by Provincial Council. Completing an unfinished main sewer and upgrading of what was said, an inadequate and polluted water supply were areas of concern for Auckland at this time. 

While the responsibility for conducting the civic affairs for the town of Auckland was in theory the Provincial Government’s, little achievement to overcome these two problems happened.

Stewart had not long arrived and settled when Provincial Council advertised, calling for Civil Engineers and others to submit reports to a competition for a Water Supply Scheme for Auckland.

The premium for this competition was £50.

 At the 31January, 1860 meeting of Provincial Council, Mr. Williamson reported four reports had been entered – that of Messrs Heaphy, Baber and Edward Oakley, James Stewart and R Wood, with Colonel Mould’s decision favouring Stewart’s Report. 

Stewart’s “ scheme was to pump by steam from the Onehunga Springs one million gallons per day by 14 inch rising main to One Tree Hill, and then to gravitate by 12 inch main to the top of Wakefield Street via Newmarket, Khyber Pass and Symonds Street. Estimate £33,381, without reticulation.”  

View across to Newmarket, Kyber Pass, Symonds Street Harbour in distance

Although Provincial Council had the drawings and cost estimates of the four entrants and Stewart had a £50 prize for being successful, Auckland did not progress in spite of a proposal, with any Public Town Water Supply.

 Soon after the announcement of the competition results a group of Auckland Residents held a Public Meeting and headed by five prominent citizens of that time (J. Logan Campbell, Theophilus Heale, J.A. Gilfillan, Thomas Russell and Arch. Clark) petitioned Provincial Council. This included a proposal for the establishment of a Public Company to further Stewart’s winning report into a working water supply.

Words, meetings and committees flowed but water did not. The Petition was referred to a Select Committee of the Provincial Council, where the following week a Select Committee was formed. Their brief was to consider the Water Supply propositions of the Petition and report to Provincial Council the following week.

The Water Supply Select Committee reported back their considerations to Provincial Council and after debate the report was adopted with amendments. At a later meeting the Superintendent, Williamson, refused the proposal, reluctant to accept private interests being involved in the provision of a water supply.

Onehunga drew from the water supply source of the Onehunga Springs. Debate on a water supply source for Auckland City continued.  It was many years before any building of any substantial water scheme took place to cater for the growing and adequate needs of the city’s residents.  Water supply for Auckland was a “hot topic” in the newspapers and the subject of many reports, investigations, opinions and suggestions to the varying municipal governments over the years – Provincial Council, the Town Board, and the Commissioners of the City Board of Works 1862 – 1870, Auckland City Council 1871 – onwards.

The Hunua Ranges, Waikato River and Waitakere were amongst those explored and suggested options as suitable locations to supply that much needed commodity of water. 

The Daily Southern Cross in October 1863 reported that the Colonial Secretary in addressing the Provincial Council, discussed the possibility of a water supply from the Nihotipu River, Waitakere District, with a preliminary survey having been made and estimates being prepared.

Pariraha Gorge, Waitakere Ranges - photo JM Stewart 1930's 

An adequate water supply for Auckland still did not eventuate. The quest for that elusive water supply continued. An upgrade of the existing Domain Water Supply in 1866 provided only a temporary solution and research shows, not much extra water but for those decision- makers in authority, it was regarded as an economic solution. Although the upgrade did little to quench the water debate, the Domain Springs, nevertheless, provided Auckland with its first piped municipal water supply.

The debate for the provision of an adequate water supply continued.  As Auckland entered the 1870s two events for those administering the civic affairs of Auckland bought changes to the water issue. The first was a change in Municipal Governance which saw the winding up of the City Board of Commissioners and the rising up in 1871, in its place, the first Auckland City Council. ( a little like the story of the Phoenix)

The second change was what was known as Government’s “Vogel Scheme” wherein driven by Julius Vogel, then Government Treasurer, a large amount of money borrowed from sources in England, became available to fund immigration settlement, roads, railways, and municipal utilities. 
The newly elected City Council gained a series of investigative reports from various Civil Engineers – William Brogden, of the NZ Government contracted Railway Construction Company, the Nihotupu Water Catchment in the Waitakeres; C Napier Bell of Brogden & Sons Company, the Western Springs Water Catchment, and even E.O. Moriarty, an Australian Civil Engineer who was a Commissioner in 1867, for Sydney’s Water Supply. His report favored Western Springs. 

Even the volcanic cones of Auckland were looked at by as potential supply sources by those who saw themselves as water experts, who flooded the newspapers with their proposals, thoughts and ideas. 

Fairy Falls Henderson Valley- photo JM Stewart 1930's

A very dry season in 1872 “heated up” the water supply debate further and Council was faced with no longer being able to avoid or side- step the issue, so had to look seriously at somewhere. This they did and Western Springs became for them, the most likely option. The “water experts” continued to flood the newspapers with their theories and ideas which in addition to the volcanic cones even explored the idea of water being piped by bridge across the Waitemata from the Northshore.

 In 1873, two members of the Auckland Institute, both Civil Engineers – Mr. John Goodall, C.E. along with Stewart, contributed their ideas on a Water Supply for Auckland, in papers written and read to the Auckland  Institute meeting. Both Civil Engineers discounted the feasibility of a water supply piped across the Waitemata from Lake Takapuna. Stewart discounting the ideas of the “water experts” in the newspapers, contributing his thoughts, said:

“It is true that, in dealing with these lava cones and their so-called mysterious springs, many do not look to local rainfall as the source, but boldly scan some distant lake, and, totally ignoring the laws of gravitation and those regulating the flow of water, as well as the seemingly insuperable difficulty of intervening seas, point to a probable subterranean connection and source of supply.” ( Stewart, 1973)

While Mr. Goodall’s paper favoured Mount Eden as a probable water supply source, cheaper to pipe from than the Nihotopu, Western Springs or Onehunga Springs, Stewart’s paper favoured Western Springs to Mount Eden writing:-

“And the farther inland at which water is sought, the smaller and further apart will be those rivulets, until, on reaching the summit of the watershed at Mount Eden, the minimum will be obtained; and, although at that elevation a basin maybe found containing many million cubic feet of water, it would only be a work of time to exhaust it if the all-important points of rainfall and gathering ground are inadequate to keeping up the supply.” ( Stewart,1873) 

Finally in 1874 the Auckland City Council got beyond the many consultants reports and financial costs and proceeded with the Western Springs Water Supply, made possible with a loan of £100,000. Plans and designs were drawn up by William Eyrington and with John Goodall the construction was overseen by these two engineers to completion in 1877. The water flowed from Auckland City Council’s  first considered then, adequate waterworks and for the next decade the Water Debate dried up.

Meantime Stewart by 1874 was District Engineer Public Works Department for construction of all railways in the Auckland Province. Other settlements took his priorities. Clean water supply was an important component of a rail system to supply steam engines. A keen interest in water supply source was taken wherever he worked.

Back in Auckland water use continued to increase and true to Moriarty, the Australian Engineer’s prediction of a twenty year life span for Western Springs water supply, it happened. By the mid 1890s, the water purity of the Western Springs was under serious doubt, with the hunt on again for an adequate and pure water supply. Again reports and investigations flowed freely as the water from Western Springs became a trickle.

Stewart became involved again in the Auckland Water Supply issue. In 1898 alternatives to Western Springs as Auckland’s water supply were reported on by Stewart with William Anderson, the City Engineer. More reports from various other engineers ensued over the following six years. 

 In 1900 Onehunga and Cornwall Park continued to draw water from the Onehunga Springs. In 1909 Stewart referred to the continued water purity of these Springs and made observations in a paper he wrote and read to the Auckland Institute on the “Aeration of the Auckland Lava Beds

“The facts as above stated seem sufficient to warrant the conclusion that all the permeable mass of the volcanic formation in the County of Eden is subject to constant aeration. From a sanitary point of view, the significance of this fact cannot be overrated. It seems to afford a satisfactory reason to account for the continued purity of the western and Onehunga springs, not withstanding the fact that Onehunga has been settled for about sixty-two years, and Mount Eden district for about forty-five years. The population of the volcanic lands of Onehunga, Epsom, Mount Eden, and One Tree Hill at last census was 14970, settled on an area in which there is not a yard of surface stream in the ordinary sense of the term, and up to the present no system of drainage excepting that of natural or artificial drainage- pits.” ( Stewart, 1909)

Stewart concluded in the same paper:-

“  It must not, however, be  deduced from this that it would be wise to trust  to a continuance of the purity of the springs, without a regular system of drainage, at Onehunga, where a very considerable area of the crust is comparatively shallow, and where an accidental exposure of any of the larger fissures or cavities in the rock might lead to direct and rapid pollution.” ( Stewart, 1909)

Footnote:

However into a new Century, Auckland was moving toward an adequate water supply for that era. At Nihotupu Stream, the first of and temporary wooden dam in the Waitakeres was piped by gravity feed to the Western Springs water works by 1902. More reports, more pipes more dams planned and by 1908 Waitakere water truly flowed to the City of Auckland. Later years saw more water flowing from another dam in the Hunua Ranges where Stewart's grandson was a Ranger at Otau. As to James Stewart MICE. The paper wrote and read to the Auckland Institute as an outcome of  his engineering work  of drainage of the Epsom depot of the Auckland Electric Tramways was the last. Stewart died in 1914 having just returned from a Wellington meeting of the NZ Institute. His other love of scientific matters as a trustee of this organisation.  

The water or lack of it has continued into the new century and now we hear post COVID of new methods to provide water - obtaining it from waste water and salt water - a new era in our NZ history.

Karekare Falls Waitakere - photo JM Stewart 1930's 

Reference Sources:

• Bush, G.W.A. DECENTLY AND IN ORDER, the Centennial History of the Auckland City Council, 1971. Auckland: Collins Bros & Co, 1971
• Furkert, F.W. Early New Zealand Engineers. Wellington: Reed, 1953.
• Lawn, C. A. F. N. Z. I. S. The Pioneer Land Surveyors of New Zealand. Parts I-III. Auckland: N.Z.I.S., 14, October, 1977.
• By JOHN GOODALL, C.E. “ART VI. On the Probability of a Water Supply being obtained for the City of Auckland from Mount Eden.” In Transactions and Proceedings NZ Institute, Volume 6, 1873: also in http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_06/rsnz_06_00_000550.html.
• By JAMES STEWART, C.E. “ART. VII.—NOTES ON THE PROPOSITION TO SUPPLY AUCKLAND WITH WATER FROM MOUNT EDEN.” In Transactions and Proceedings NZ Institute, from Volume 6. 1873: also in http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_06/rsnz_06_00_000560.html.
•  By James Stewart, M. Inst. C.E. “Art. XXXIV.—On the Aeration of the Auckland Lava-beds .” In Transactions and Proceedings NZ Institute , from Volume 42, 1909: also in http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_42/rsnz_42_00_003270.html.
• Papers Past NZ National Library
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• Daily Southern Cross. “MONTHLY SUMMARY FOR THE ENGLISH OCTOBER MAIL. GENERAL SUMMARY. Daily Southern Cross,  5 October 1863, Page 3.” Papers Past. (accessed April 20, 2009).
• Auckland Museum. “Auckland War Memorial Museum Education Kit Volcanoes.” Auckland War Memorial Museum. pdf (accessed April 16, 2009).
•  Auckland City Council, written by G.W.A. Bush 5.8.98. “History of Auckland City Chapter 2 Building a solid city (1871-1918)The new City Council and Auckland's condition.” Auckland City Council . http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/auckland/Introduction/bush/chap2.asp (accessed April 17, 2009).
• “Waitakere Ranges.” Watercare Services Limited. http://www.water.co.nz/watercare/water-supply/waitakeres/waitakeres_home.cfm  (accessed April 22, 2009).
• IPENZ. “Western Springs Waterworks – Auckland .” IPENZ Engineering Heritage. (accessed April 17, 2009).