engineering processes the water from one or more of the wealden rivers; or, 3. To bore down to an older stratum, and thus obtain the required article. This latter mode could be used in connection with either of the former, and the fact that the boring at the new Water-works has saved Hastings during the last dry weather, proves that it was a wise, though expensive, step. I believe, however, that the supply obtained from this source is mainly derived from the lower part of the Hastings sands or where that formation rests upon the Purbeck beds. If I am right in my conjecture the upper portion of the oolite down to the bottom of the Kimmeridge clay will have to be penetrated ere a much greater supply will be met with. Of this, however, I decline to speak positively, as my geological knowledge is too limited, though I venture to affirm that the clays of the Purbeck beds and of the oolite have been have been or will be met with in the boring in question, and at the bottom of these water will be found – not the clay of the wealden”. “John Banks, Bleak House, Oct 12th 1859”.
To Increase Water Supply. At the Council Meeting on the 7th of October, the Mayor (W. Ginner) said he had drawn some resolutions to lay before the Board, which he thought their present necessities should lead them seriously to consider. He had been a member of the town authorities for a quarter of a century, and a quarter of a century of a man’s working life was not spent without acquiring something. He could say with confidence that a considerable number of those years had been spent with a scarcity of water in the town. Many years back in the summer they were frequently obliged to shut up the public pumps, to the inconvenience of those who most felt the want of them, and they were also obliged to circumscribe the water through the pipes. At that time the necessity for a large supply was not great as now; the drainage was in a far inferior condition, and the local Acts then prohibited some matters which were now compulsory. And then, looking at the area from which we had to draw our supply of water, he thought they now only need to take into consideration that part of the district from which water could be obtained by its own gravitation. That he found only amounted to 2,900 acres; and he was surprised to find it was so small. The rainfall had also been given (by Mr. Banks) and a theoretical calculation of water supply when the average was what it ought to be. But they all knew that for some years past, it had failed to give anything like the quantity described. In the time of the Commissioners attempts were made to mend matters, and they formed a tank at the north-east of the town. The idea then was that the supply would be so large that they would never want -
