THE WATER SUPPLY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 230, 7 April 1874, Page 5

THE WATER SUPPLY.

;, n * | /jm-jrj iol .Lrn?*? fo fry/wife f.« v oiJiod »u1 L addressed.. by -Dr JJakeweU ito"the',' Town 'Council of Dunediri,6n<the•■subject iof the tOith'at'cityV In one sense,' the letter .does.,not ~Ju. any way concern us '(Dromwellites-; but/in another, and, alas ! amost important one, it->concerns us deeply.: , From [time to time, for the last three years, we have had occasion to call the attention of our 'fellowrcitizens to a,sta£e',of things existing in our "township far worse than that, disclosed in Dunedin. Perhaps our utterances lacked the", weight which will' be attached to those,of. a prpfessional man like Dr Bake well, and'consequently they fell upon unheeding ears ; perhaps they also fe,ll upon uiiwilling .ears,—unwilling to admit the truth inall its. nakedness. | We invite them nowtoa careful pex'u sal. of the l.etter referred to, and in it,-- let them see an underdrawn description'of ; the stuff they themselves are compelled,, to. Exactly three months ago,, before our, townr .shi'phad to any'appreciable-extent begun to suffei\ the iiiflicti'dh with which it is h'ow visited,-, we; itodk' occas-ion, in ,referring to the water supply, to point: out the possible consequences which might attend the use pf such vile stuff as we were then, and for months past had been, forced to make use, of.-! four. remarks then -are-, bo apropos, of then-conclusion'at which" we: wish our worthy Councillors* and fellow-citizens, to arrive, that we'canhot'forbear''republishing them. It will also convince, we should . think, the most sceptical, that the Press did not, as has been said, neglect its duty in..the matter. After describing the race, we said : *' If anyone doubts the truth "of it, let him look at the race: i an. hour " after it has ceased running—-(he will have " an Qppprtunity'.to-day,'or td-mOr'ro,w,! or " almost anyjday he please§)— and-, before •" the mild has had time to get hard. .He , ,'f will' find" it" "with '■ countless t' millions of ,those i iwhich " flourish amongst decayed' animal and " vegetable matter, r Let him further eat- .'" amine the deposit in ! the tanks and bar- : i'f re'ls set at' racel; His 1 7 winder will be-.Jbliat.' we have''not'.long " ago'been decimated ;by typhus, or some "other fever 1 c*f the' most malignant type. 1 ,", We may' depend' upon it that the com";paratively niild cases we have, hadr h'ave " only been warnings, which should not '.' be neglected-. The infraction of a natural j 'law ( to the slightest possible extent is in- " variably followed by the penalty made " for such a case. The use of water highly " charged with decaying organic matter is "invariably followed by sickness of some " kind or otherj— generally of-a typhoid " nature. And fevers of that description, " when they do not end in death, generally " leave behind them the seeds of untold " and protracted sufferings." Did unfortunately, our words only -too faithfully foreshadow the events which were ,to 'come? : ■'•'■'■?" .'■•'.: '. ; '" 'y--' '-.•• • •' ■ In | an.' article,,';fpUdwing ~J. shortly aftei*, afraid that we had, possibly 4 wglt too much ;upqn T one cause of disease and" death: which existed iri : our midst,* we drew public attention, to the filthy state in which many parts of the town stood, and more especially the river-bank from opposite the post-ofiice to

Jw jjuid we urged .the % Council to stykje ste|)B'. a v "'g(fbViiiir -^tato' 61* rbloitigii jf^ora fl ()6iji&'. perpettiAt^Vl.'' " ,^> " r ' g ln tli'o faceJ,of the dreadful, epidemic nowin bur midst* and which has gained,, us such an unenviable , notoriety, -a-mongst tli« towns of Otago, we-dp trust thatsopief energetic measures will be taken b$ tte Council. Regulations'• have lately •been'mfrde which give large powers to the Council i in dealing' with nuisances, but it will be found, upon examination of them, that,jthese. powers, are not ,large enough ; andnonp.oi' two most important matters 'a'lte entirely omitted. For instance, it must-be apparent' to every sensible person that; Wis a mistake to r m;'tke provision for •licepsjng slaughter-houses in. the' to wnship. >They ought to, be theni and' their stinking surrpundingsj: r ~A ! provision .is made for keeping them'clean to. the satis.: , faqtiohwof the -Town-Inspector, but they 'cannot, under the most favourable cirdumstiinbes, be kept clean enough' not to'be a to ,the citizens. '.; There "is 1 ho. water, or'not sufficient,' to wash them.. And if there were, water, where would it, with.the blood and filth of a slaughterhouse, drain to 1 Out on the:gutter of the 'main street, or upon the surface of a back-yard, there to lie till it soaked into |he aj[ready overburdened soil, or dispersed into the air. The sheep-skins, which some-, times hang upon the fences for weeks at a time, are of themselves a sufficient nuisance to warrant, "us. in saying that slaughterhouses xri the town must be abolished. ' : §omV poyis'iW must also be hiade for the 'proper deposit and removal at slated tjiiies. •of' njight r soil. The state,of .things iij present <in - existence, with -exceptional cases here'.and there, is simply disgusting. If our worthy Councillors had thought proper, when drafting their regulations, to study a code of laws.which was drawn up some 4000; years ago,—the first code of which We have any historical record,—they would have found that even this matter was not lost [sight of. The laws were intended for theguidarice of a people inhabiting a portion of tlie earth, the climate of which was not dissimilar to that of our own j and the very fact ; ,of such a matter 'we ai-e now speaking of being included in,such a code of laws, ought to be a sufficient., testimony that it is one of great importance. Provision must also be made for the periodical removal of/stable manure,'and not, as at, [present, to .allow it to lie from one year*& : end to the btlmr. Piggeries, of course, are already condemned, although we cannot as yet see any. signs of the removal of any. of them. -Not-, however, to descend too much into; detail, we may shortly say the great work which stands before our worthy Council at,present, next to that of the Water Supply, is to initiate suck a system of things that the township can, as ic were, be swept out once a week, at the. very least, and cleaned thoroughly. In the first place, then, we would recommend that temporary works, should at once be proceeded with by the Council, to enable the citizens to provide themselves with water from the Clutha for drinking and cooking purposes. At a very small expense, a pump could be erected on the or at such place as might be deter : mined upon by the Council,.where, water .carts might.be supplied for distribution of ;the pure element throughout the town. As •it is a matter of importance to everyone in the place, a general rate could be levied to defray the expense of such temporary works, or a-cha-ge might he made for the quantity of watersupplied. The general rate,v. calculated on the ordinary rate, (owners of-unoccupied sections being left out, or only charged a nominal amount,) would be the better plah,"however, as some might object who had other means of obtaining supplies, by means of rain-water tanks, or other ways and means, or. who might object on parsimonious grounds, and thus defeat the general scheme. Or the' .Council might erect the temporary works at'the public expense and leave people to draw and collect water for themselves. Winter will very shortly be upon us, and judging by last year's experience, our miserable supply from the race will be stopped for some six or seven weeks at any rate. The worts we are thus urging upon the attention of the Council would not only, if at once set about, supply us with pure water for the remainder of the autumn, but would, serve our purposes, in winter, when we are usually cut off from a supply altogether. .•..,■■■ . • ,; ; In tlie second'place, besides urging upon the,. Council . the. of> slaughterhouses in th.e, to>yn,we. would advise the , compulsory adoption of the earth closet system, and the beginning of a regular system of night-carts for the removal of nightsoil, ashes, and other accumulations. We would recommend that the ground upon the " sandy desert," which is applied for bv the I

Corporation as an endowment, and which 'beyjond k NcTonb't'will fib gr'ahted For tlio 'pdvpose of rpqlKiii:ition by the Government* should lie,used in a systematic way as a depot, and .planted with trees and shrubs. , Portion of it might be fenced in, And trenched to (say) the depth of two feet, the rubbish daily 1 or twice a week removed from the town being deposited in the trenches and covered over with the top sand. One trench only would require to be made at a time, and the sand which was excavated from trench number two would'do the duty of actiug as a covering for trench "number one. If trees and shrubs were planted as we suggest, abundance of water' Could bo had at some' seasons for irrigation purposes from the overflow', of the tank.,at the head of Melmprc-' street. Thus two evils would be remedied, or put in a fair, way to remedy themselves. The filth which how accumulates in the township, anil helps so powerfully to breed disease and death, would then be made not only to fertilise the Koil, but to reclaim a pece of land .which is now the source of the terrible dust plague from which we suffer every now and again :. and we confidently declare the plan would be offensive to no one. ; In case any method of this kind were adopted, it also could be made self-supporting to the Corporation. Owners of stables-ami occupiers of houses might be charged reasonable sums for the privilege of getting their premises cleaned at regular intervals; and we are quite certain it would be a charge which would be paid without a grumble. Another thing should be taken into without delay, and that is, the adoption of a .proper sys-tem-of drainage, unless it should be decided to utilise what we may term our sewage in the plan of reclamation above spoken of. If drains were decided upon as preferable, surely no town could bo more favourably situated than ours for such an experiment; if the utilisation of the sewage, no great difficulty would be, experienced. The' expense in the latter case would be highly reproductive. As a last suggestion, we would recommend, the Council to obtain a report from some of our medical men upon the subject