The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1896-08-13

grievance. Correspondence must not be hbel-
tous or indecent and must be accompanied by
the name of the ,criter, not necessarily for pub
location, but as guarantee of good fdith.)
Tho Water Question.
Ed. The INDEPENDENT
desire to indorse every word of
"Kicker's" letter in the Bulletin con-
cerning the wretched water service
on Punchbowl slopes, and also to
register an additional kick for my
self and neighbors.
For years past residents of the
elevated portions of the city have
undergone q periodic water famine;
they have, during the summer
months, been obliged to carry water
for domestic purposes from Thomas
Square and other sources of supply
on the lower levels; they have seen
their cherished gardens become as
dry and barren as a central section
OF Sahara or-some other place.
But with each recurring year they
have been promised: "Plenty Of wa
ter next season, sure" Has the pro-
mise been fulfilled this year2 Mr..
Editor, l haven't had drop of water
at my place for the past four nights
and none in the daytime for months.
By daytime l mean between the
hours of 5 o'clock a. m. and any
where between and II o'clock p.
m.-never earlier than o'clock.
During all this time 1 have been
obliged to remain up until l or 2
o'clock in the morning to catch suf-
fcient water for the daily needs of
the household out of the tap, and,
as often happens, when we get no
water night or day for week at a
time, have toted water up the hill
from the tap of a neighbor who lives
hundred feet or so below me, and
have paid our "great and good" Gov
ernment the usual water rates-IN
ADvANoE-for this inestimable privi-
lege.
would like to ask, what would
be thought of any private concern
that took a mans money under an
implied contract to furnish him an
article and then neglected to do so?
Would it not SAVIOR of obtaining
money under false pretenses9"
We all thought when that splen-
did pumping plant that cost 10000
(D was housed in it's brick and stone
palace that cost 10000 (9) and was
connected with those inexhaustible
artesian wells that cost 10000 (O
that we would all have chance to
get bath once in a while without
going to Waikiki, and be able to
drink something besides ginger ale.
But with the pumping plant on
Beretania street, supplemented with
the one at Makiki, and with about
the usual rainfalls at the Nuuanu
reservoirs the water supply, in my
vicinity, is worse than ever. If we
ask, "Why don't you run the pumps
night and day at their full capacity
and force water to all parts of the
city?" we are told, 'It would bust
all the pipes" Will some expert on
hydrostatics inform me, why it is
that the pressure of water from the
Nuuanu reservoirs don't also "bust''
a pipe, or the Government, when it
is great enough the rainy season to
send the water rushing through the
highest mains in the city at terrific
pressure?
The writer has lived in several
large American cities where there
are no storage basins, the water be-
ing pumped directly into the mains
under pressure sufficient to send g
hydrant stream over the highest
buildings, and, in case of fire, auxili
ary pumps give still greater pres
sure on the mains. But perhaps oul
Climate" has an enervating inAu
ence on the pipes.
Paragraph 16 of the Rules ant
Regulations of the Honolulu WateI
N Works reads: "Irrigation shall hI