The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 855, 21 March 1877, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1877.

While the ratepayers of the Christchurch Drainage District seem to begetting deeper and deeper into a fog, as to what professional means should be best adopted to secure its well-being and purification, the denizens of the Empire City appear also to have their troubles relative to the accomplishment of a similar object. To permanently drain Wellington, certainly, does at first sight, and to an unprofessional eye, seem a matter of far less difficulty than to deal conclusively with the lowlying lands which surround our city ; hence probably it happened, that no such difficulties with regard to expenditure and to the selection of a suitable scheme, were experienced by the Wellington municipal authorities as has been the case here. But their tribulations we find, are about to commence. The scheme propounded by Mr Climie C.E. was, to a certain extent, pronounced suitable, and after due consideration of its merits it became public property, the understanding between the Wellington ratepayers and their Council being that with certain modifications of an unimportant nature, ifc would ultimately be carried out. In the mean time, by a special resolution of the Council, a step was taken with reference to the scheme being submitted to further professional scrutiny, such, we believe, as some people here once hoped the Board would have submitted Mr Carruthers’ views to. We allude to the appointment by the Wellington councillors of a medical board, to which Mr Climie’s plans were referred. This reference to medical criticism, we may state en passant, was very generally approved, and the engineer himself made no objection to it. Some grumbling, of course, was heard on the part of certain local medical men who could not —as is but too often the case elsewhere —allow the opportunity to escape without using it to have a fling at some of their brethren. After considering Mr Climie’s report, the medical board sent to the Council, a series of recommendations in accordance with the scientific position in which it had been placed by the corporation, and, at the present somewhat entangled juncture of our own drainage affairs, those recommendations may prove of interest. Special stress, throughout their report, is laid by the Wellington medici upon what they consider the absolute necessity of keeping the drain pipes and sewers as sketched out in Mr Ciimie’s scheme, continually flushed by an abundant and adequate supply of water. With those gentlemen this continuous flushing power is a sine qua non, and they go so far as to state as their deliberate opinion that, without it, the system proposed, (which bye-the-bye in practical particulars,is similar to Mr Carruthers’) would certainly prove a fertile cause of disease. Indeed their views on the subject are so positive that they strongly recommend “ that where the steepness of the sewers, from the elevated position of the hilly part of the town, precludes their being constantly full of water, a separate minor system of piping he adopted.” The reason given ih fortified by an explanation, that, where sewers are not continually Hushed, sewage gases of a most noxious nature are at once generated and, by reason of their lightness, they ascend uni inevitably cause disease. Those •■(•commendations, it is clear, when summed up, amount to this, that in those gentlemen’s opinion, before incurring the expense and responsibility of establishing a system of drainage—let that system be ever so

professionally correct from an en- 1 gineering point of view, and so rationally suitable—it is of absolute importance that an adequate supply of water be secured for—we suppose we may call it—the efficient and natural working of the details of the system In fact, the argument comes up to the old saw, that to carry out an elaborate drainage scheme without having been previously assured of water-power sufficient to permanently flush its conduits, would be like “ putting the cart before the horse.” The Drainage Board have told us from time to time, at least the only professional man who sits on it, Mr Wright has, that an ample supply of water was at hand and could with ease be procured when needed. This explanation, it must be said, was, after all, given only when the pressure of public opinion was cornering the Board rather unpleasantly. And it may be remembered, that this water supply question has been, all along, the cardinal point which one of the most unprejudiced opponents of Mr Carruthers’ scheme, Dr Frankish, urged against its adoption. The public mind, on this vexed controversy, seems, just now, more unhinged than ever, and yet no finality that we can foresee looms in the distance to bring it to a conclusion one way or the other. The Board, we believe, is shortly to be asked to resign ; and that, we have reason to think, they have no intention of doing. The present position of affairs is such that we cannot believe that anything short of a reference of Mr Carruthers’ scheme, to a commission of men versed in engineering and medico-scientific lore, will succeed in putting an end to this lamentable dead-lock. But then, would the Board agree to the adoption of such a course?

At the end of the month, the engagement entered into between Sir Julias Vogel and Captain Campbell-Walker will come to a termination. The official title given to that gentleman, when his services were first secured as the head of a new department, was that of Conservator of State Forests ; and the lime for which he was positively retained was one of fifteen months. No definite arrangements have been made by the Government as to what will now be done in this matter of Crown forestry, but we believe that it will remain with the Parliament, at its next session, to decide whether Captain CampbellWalker shall be further employed in the same service or not. He has sent in his report upon the state of New Zealand forests, together with general recommendations as to what should he done in the way of improving and protecting them ; and, from all accounts, this report is a valuable one. It will form an important addition to the multifarious papers contained in the blue books, and may have the effect of guiding the Assembly in whatever future steps it may think proper to take with a view of establishing a permanent system of forest conservation. In the mean time, Captain CampbellWalker intends spending a few months in Australia and Tasmania, where, in all probability, his technical knowledge of forestry may be utilised by the local authorities. So far as we have beeu as yet enabled to form a judgment, the expenditure devoted to the maintenance of his appointment here during the last year and a half has been more than amply repaid by the results obtained. It may be remembered that when Sir Julius Vogel first introduced his great Forestry scheme in the Assemby, the main ground of objection raised on the part of some of the Opposition side of the House was, that nothing professionally tangible had been shewn by our ex-Premier as being practically applicable to our colonial forests, and that therefore he could only base his request for the formation of the new department, (which necessitated setting aside from the sale of Crown lands, a large slice of country) upon mere theoretical data. Next session, when the question is again brought up, something definite will have to be done, and Captain Campbell-Walker’s report will then prove sufficiently explicit to enable the House to arrive at final conclusions on the subject.