WANT OF SEWAGE.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2147, 24 March 1870, Page 2

WANT OF SEWAGE.

To the Editor of the Evening Star. Sir, —I am glad to see you advert to the sewerage question, so strangely neglected by our City Council in favor of the much less important one of gas. Such sewers as we have poison our beautiful bay, and leakage from cesspits is slowly but too surely converting the soil of the city to a hotbed of disease. Could you find space for some extracts from the enclosed paper lately read by Mr T. M. Girdlestono, F.R.C.S., health officer of Melbourne, before tho Medical Society of Victoria ? Ho advocates the pneumatic system for the removal of nightsoil ; but you will observe that tho Melbourne City Council have lately adopted a cheap and simple substitute for cesspits, f venture to predict that their example will be followed as soon as our Councillors rightly appreciate the importance of the subject. I enclose my card, and subscribe myself— Yours, &c,, A Citizen.

The following are extracts from the paper alluded to by our correspondent: — THE REMEDY. “Under the conviction that the time has certainly arrived for fixing on some recognised system of sewage and drainage for Melbourne, the following propositions are suggested as important preliminary points to bo agreed to :—l. That the want of proper means fur the removal of sewage has given rise to saturation of the soil with ground water, which is prejudicial to health ; 2. No . sewage should be allowed to enter a river, swamp or bay ; 3. No system can be satisfactory that does not return the sewage to the agriculturalist as manure ; 4. The sewage and drainage of Melbourne and suburbs should be under ope board dr directory; 5. All the swamps in and around the town should bo cleaned or removed ; 6. Sewage must be kept distinct from drainage, so that the storm water, with the proper drainage of the ground, can be returned to the watercourses, and the sewage, per se, to the land.” “ BRIGHTON DRAINAGE. (From the Lancet, Aptril 3, 1869.) “ Wo might refer to our commissioners’ report last autumn for undoubted evidence, but that it may now be obtained from townspeople who had not dared to speak previously'. ‘lf the system of draining into the sea had answered,’ says a correspondent of the Brighton Herald , ‘ why is there such an insufferable stench on the old Steine ? Why are so many gulls seen hovering over the exit of thp drain ? Why is the sfea discolored ? and why does the sand at low water stink so horribly ? Why is scum floating on the surface of the sea ? and why do the bathers refuse to bathe?’ The population of Brighton in 1851 was only (59,673, and the sewage thrown into the sea was from ‘ less than a third of the town.’ Cesspools were still used in two-thirds of the town. In July' the town council determined to discontinue the practice.” THE PNEUMATIC SYSTEM. “ This has advantages no other can claim, and is said to work well in countries where it has been in use for some years. In Captain Liernur’s process, described by Krepp, the sewage is removed by atmospheric pressure, without the admixture of any foreign material, through air-tight pipes, into a hermeti-cally-sealed iron tank from which the air has been exhausted. The faulf is emptied from time to time by a syphon, into a cart constructed to receive it ; a vacuum is first formed in an iron vessel in the cart, the syphon connects one with the other, and in a minute the cart is filled. The whole process may bo seen in excellent working order at the Melbourne Hospital, where Mr Williams has adopted it to two or three closets for the sake of giving it a fair trial. It is found that an ordinary Yan Yean exhausting pump is strong enough to create a vacuum sufficient for what is required, thereby saving a good deal of trouble. Altogether, the results obtained by Mr Williams are quite sufficient to warrant a further application of the system. It occasions no offensive smell; the sewage cannot soak into the soil, as all the appliances must be air-tight ; any leak in pipes or tanks would interfere with the formation of the vacuum ; the full value of the sewage as manure is retained, at the same time that the difficulty of disposing of it is got rid of. ” fHE CORPORATION PEAS'. “In consequence of the horrible nuisance caused by leaking cesspools, the City Corporation have recommended householders to have them filled up, .and substitute watertight iron buckets, to be placed in the privy, on the surface of the ground, and used instead of the cessp 01. These are emptied by the cleansing contractor, who takes away the full bucket and placts an empty one in its stead, once a week, free of cost to the owner or tenant. Every closet should be furnished with a pipe, some two or three inches in diameter, commencing at the seat or bucket, and passing upwards through the roof, for the escape of gas. I have seen several fitted up in this way, and can say that they are far less offensive than the old-fashioned closet placed over a cess-pool. This arrangement has only been in operation since the 17th of last January, and is not supposed to bo perfect, but it is a decided step in the right direction, and does good by abolishing the worst source of our atmospheric impurities.”