The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 984, 21 August 1877, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1877.

The ratepayers have now before them Mr. Carruthers' little bill for the celebrated drainage scheme about which we have heard so much. Altogether it tots up to over £I7OO, as the sum which has to be paid to the Consulting Engineer, to say nothing of the salaries of the Eesident Engineer, Surveyors, &c. This is then the result of the hasty action taken by the Board, in accepting the scheme of Mr. Carruthers without first allowingthe public an opportunity of considering it, or indeed without a great deal of consideration on their own part. We now find ourselves at the commencement of the spring, with the hot weather rapidly approaching, and in a no more advanced position as regards the drainage of the city than we were twelve months ago. Not only so, but the Board have expended a large sum of the ratepayers' money for what is now no better than waste paper. All the work has to be dune over again and we have to get another scheme —and pay for it. the advice of Mr. Clarke is to be taken at a still further expenditure of money, and we shall then find ourselves in the middle of summer with a largely increased population, and not the slightest approach to provision for drainage. That something must be done as speedily as possible no one will deny. The Board possess a highly paid staff whose principal duty at the present time appears to be to report on drains <uid ditches in the rural districts, aud wage war with some unfortunate land. owner who refuse? to recognise the

right of the Board to enter upon Ms property for the purpose of cutting a ditch through it. The work is no no douht necessary, but hitherto Road Board surveyors have been equal, to the task, and might still be, if they had the opportunity. Till Mr Clarke reports on our drainage, we must no doubt wait. But something in the meantime should be done, and that without delay. Any one who has taken the trouble to look at the tenements in some parts of the city, will see at once the danger in which we are placed. The back yards of some of them are positively reeking with fever-breeding moisture, which, as the summer approaches, will be fraught with, danger to the general health. Whatever scheme of drainage is ultimately adopted, the mode of dealing with such nuisances will not be greatly different. We hope therefore the Board will see tit to utilise their highly paid staff on works which tend to improve as much as possible the health of the district. We observe that the Board of Health has requested their officer to report on the health of the district generally. We hope therefore at the next meeting to find some practical suggestions made in the direction we have indicated. If we cannot, at present, have a comprehensive scheme of drainage initiated, we can at any rate use every remedial measure in our power to avert the outbreak of pdisease, and thus secure some return for our large outlay in salaries to engineers and surveyors.