The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 17. 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3815, 17 May 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 17. 1875.

Thb moat important section of Dr Cole’s “ Preliminary Report on the Sanitary Condition of Dunedin” is that which deals with the question of the disposal of the sewage of the City. Of course, it is not in the slightest degree probable that Dr Cole’s or anyone else’s warnings or advice will have the smallest effect in the way of causing the citizens of Dunedin to seriously set about improving the sanitary condition of the town. Long experience has taught us the uselessness of entertaining any such expectation. Still it is not unpleasant to be able to feel that by-and-by, when Princes street has been widened at an expense of £30,000, or, according to some authorities, £loo,ooo* when the gas question has been finally set at rest; when the Town Belt has been brought into thorough order; when.fcin’fshort, there is no other subject with which our City politicians can occupy themselves, it avill be quite in our power to provide for the disposal of our sewage without having *tof incur any very ruinous expenditure. liTthe meantime there may be a few score of deaths from typhoid fever and other zymotic';?diseases, which might be prevented if the drainage of the town were at once satisfactorily attended to ; but fortunately the steady flow of immigration to our shores, which is now in progress will cause any gaps that may be made by such deaths to be speedily|filled,up. It should be remembered, too, that the expense of adding to our population by (means ,of assisted immigrants is borne by the Colony nofc . by the Province ; con equently the Province and a fortiori, l.uuedin, will have to bear only a : small portion of any loss sustained through the sacrifice of j s lives that may be caused by our exceptional carelessness. Of course, in any*other community than our own such a consideration would hardly be thought worth attending to, but in Dunedin, where the strictest economy m every department of Municipal affairs (except, of course, in the case of such all-important matters as the widening of Princes street) is so firmly insisted upon we should hardly feel justified in overlook’mg even the money cost of deaths that may occur through our neglect of drainage and • Bu . c b matters. Other equally valid reasoha might be adduced, tending to show that in the present state of public, feeling with regard to this drainage question any attempt to deal with it would be premature. Public opinion is not yet ripe for such an attempt, though the town is ; indeed if there is any truth injthe statements of Dra Baiewkll Cole and others, it has advanced a stage or two beyond ripeness, and might b more fatly described as being rotten. But while it is impossible for the people of Dunedin to deal praotically with such a matter as the public healthat present, itcandothemnoharm to give a passing notice to Dr Cole’s plan for dealing with the sewage of the City after it has been conveyed to the sandhills at the Ocean Beach by means of a system of drainage originally devised, we believe, by Mr Burt, (J. K. If this system were adopted, a dram would run right through the town from the Water of Leith to the sandhills, a dam would be thrown across the Water of Uith just below the upper eud of the drain. At certain intervals of time a sluice at the mouth of the drain would be openrd and the water accumulated by means of the dam would sweep through the drain, carrvinu everythmg before it, as Dr Cole belk ves Tributaries from all par s of the town w. uld run into the main dram. At the sandhills large plots of ground v ould be prepared for receiving the liquid portion of the after it had been sop rated from the solid part by a simple pro jess of straining; the liquid sewage would then, by the system of ‘‘downward filtration,” be made to pass through the prepared ground, end would run mto the ocean, haying left all impurities be hind it, and having become “ bright, perfectly pellucid, free from smell, and tasting ®~y °f common suit.” For our parts we should be inclined to receive this latter part of the statement on the authority of Dr Cole ; we should have i o desire to put it to the test of direct experiment. 1 he solid matter resulting from the straining process would be mixed wiili a ® ae ®» aB( l wheeled on to the ground. One of the best features of the scheme is that, after J-k ® original c< at of constructing the woiks bad been defrayed, it would very nearly pay working expenses, as the land on which the process was carried on would become exc edicgly fertile, and could be let for market gardens at a high rental. The proposed scheme has been subjected to a thorough trial at Merthyr Tydvil and other places, and has been found to answer admit ably. Of course, no part of the scheme is altogether new j theie is, we believe, no part of it

that has not been already brought under the noti « of the public, but it has never before bt-e i brought forward as a tangible and consistent whole. It seems to us, looking at the matter quite from the non-proftssional point of view, of course, that the scheme is an eminently practical and feasible one, and that if the people of Dunedin were not engaged about the more important matters before referred to, thejr could not do better than give this proposition their earnest consideration. In conclusion we may quote the report of the River Pollution Commissioners on the Merthyr filter beds :

experience of these filter beds at Merthyr -ycivil has made plain what the experiments in our laboratory had previously established. Towns can cleanse their sewage within a much smaller quantity of !and than any experience hitherto had might lead them to expect. Sewage irrigation offers the great advantage of a remunerative return. Intermittent filtration may also now be confidently accepted as a sufficient remedy for the sewage nuiBonce. These two methods are essentially one, wherever thorough drainage accompanies—as it always should—the extensive form of irrigation, and they aro the only methods which are perfectly trustworthy for the abatement of this sewage nuisance.