A CONUNDRUM.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2250, 14 May 1881, Page 1

A CONUNDRUM.

The battle between the “ Press ” newspaper and the Drainage Board is raging somewhat fiercely, and it is evident that the latter are getting very much the worst of it. Indeed, they only manage to carry on the war by carefully burking the real point at issue. That point, of coarse, is that the ratepayers have already declared that they do not wish solid excreta to be conveyed through the drains to the sandhills. On being famished with this opinion the Board last year gave up their Bill, and now, without consulting the ratepayers any further, they endeavour to bring about the very state of affairs on which the citizens have already pronounced an adverse opinion. The letter from “ Indignant,” in this morning’s “ Press,” would seem to be a regular “ clincher,” and we shall be curious to see how the Board will endeavour to escape from the fix in which they have placed themselves. Dr. Nedwill’s letter to the Board, published in our issue of yesterday, sees the light of day considerably before the due date, with a view of strengthening the Board’s position. The doctor quotes a number of authorities to prove that sewage farming is not injurious, and that the conveyance of solid excreta, as wished by the Board, would bo most desirable. He quite agrees with Dr. Cobbold and others that the milk furnished by cows feeding on sewage farms would be likely to do no harm. Surely Dr. Nedwill must have forgotten his labours as officer of the Board of Health. Time after time he has insisted on the vital importance of the clean feeding of cows. He has rushed off to dairies when suspicious cases of fever have arisen, and has examined their surroundings with the utmost care. Now it cannot be asserted that the surroundings of a sewage farm are everything that could be wished. We are not hazarding an opinion as to what is the effect of sewage on grain or vegetables, but Dr Nedwill’s own researches seem clearly to point to the fact that milk would certainly be tainted were the cows that produce it to feed on grass grown on a sewage farm. Dr Nedwill does not appear to be very consistent in this matter—unless indeed he has propounded a medical conundrum. The mental gymnastics performed by the Drainage Board in the last few days have been somewhat considerable. Dr Nedwill may have been fired with an ambition to emulate the body of gentlemen with whom he is officially connected. Anyhow his views as health officer seem to differ considerably from those he entertains as an upholder of the present policy of the Drainage Board.