Bursting of the Reading Water Works Tank.

A few days since, the water-tank on Castlehill, Reading, calculated to hold 7,000 barrels, having been half filled, and the pumps continuing at work, the pressure became too heavy for the foundation, and about thirty feet of the north-east side burst open. Such was the force of the water, that masses of the brick-work (some pieces 4 feet by 3) were carried a distance of twenty three yards; the door and windows of Mr. Monck's lodge, at the entrance of Coleywalk, were forced in, and the water (which rose to the height of four or five inches above the window-sill) rushed into the room, when the inmates awoke and found their bed floating, and it was with difficulty a child was saved from being drowned. It was fortunate for the cottagers that the water in the tank had only reached to about six inches up the iron-work; for had it been full, their dwelling must inevitably have been swept away. We are happy to say no other material damage was effected. The whole must be taken down and rebuilt, there being hardly a brick remaining in the fabric which is not displaced from its original position. The loss to the Water Company, we hear, will be between 1,000l and 2,000l. This tank has been two years in building, and in a little more than two hours on attempting to bring it into use, it became a perfect wreck.—Reading Mercury.