Artesian wells of the Christchurch area

Abstract

Observations of the fluctuations of eight wells in and near Christchurch for periods ranging from one to fourteen years show that the wells rise with rain, but the amount of the rise, and the period that intervenes between the rain and the rise, depends greatly on the previous weather. While the wells are raised above normal level by rainfall, they are prevented from falling below normal by percolation from the River Waimakariri; and this is true not only of the town wells, but (contrary to my opinion in 1917) of the Lincoln wells also. The water-analyses are consistent with the thesis that both town and country wells are fed by percolation from the Waimakariri.