THE GLOBE TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1888. THE NEW DRAINAGE BILL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2571, 4 July 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1888. THE NEW DRAINAGE BILL.

The Drainage Board are at the present ■ moment in full feather. They have sueceeded in constructing a petition in favor of their Bill, and they are also of opinion that the member for Ohristchurch North favors their view of the case. Farther there is the fact that the City Council have bodily swallowed the Bill, so that the Board feel decidedly comfortable, and confidently look forward to the time when the majority of them will be able to plume themselves on the fact that they have stuffed this Bill, with its eewers gases, insufficient flushing power and broken faith on the part of the Board, holus-bolus down the throats of the ratepayers. However, most people will not feel at all certain that the object of the Board is yet un fait accompli. The House know pretty well what the value of petitions gained by house-to-house visitations in reality is—not to mention that there is another petition, nearly twice as numerously signed, against the Bill. It is a wall-recognised fact that any number of signatures can be obtained for any passible object by a canvasser with sufficient perseverance. " The opinion of those who have no opinion" is one of the largest factors in any movement, and thß views of these gentlemen yield to the first comer. This may certainly be held to cut loth ways, and to tell against the petition against, as well as that for, the new Bill. We are quite willing to grant this, for indeed the petition against the Bill ban merely seen light with a view of pointing out to the Legislature that the wishes of the inhabitants of the district, as a whole, are not represented by the document forwarded by the Board. The Board's petition represents all that can be squeezed ont of the residents by house to house canvassing. Against it must be taken the larger counter petition, also taken in the same way. The House may judge of what they are both worth. But the House will also have to take other facts into consideration. lb will have to look back on the past history of the question; on the fact of the present Board taking office on the tacit understanding that their action would be something very contrary to what it has turned out to be; on the doings of the late Board, who were again and again forced to give up their point by the expression of public opinion: on the fact that in the only case when a member of the Board resigned becauee he felt himself not in accord in the feelings of his constituents, they immediately showed that he was right in his conjecture by electing another gentlemen holding contrary views; and finally on the curious circumstance that the Board has never placed before the public even the vaguest statistics with regard to their scheme. There certainly exists a manifesto by the late Board, but the important. point of sewer flushing has never been laid before the public. The public are asked to swallow the ipse dixit of the engineer without the slightest explanation, and the Hous.i will have to recognise that the signatures of the gentlemen signing the Beard's petition are those of individuals who have, for the most part, not the ramoteat idea of how the said sewers are to be eeoured out. for the simple reason that they had never had the slightest opportunity of realising the Board's intentions. We take it that in nine cases out of ten the argument of the Board's canvasser has been much as follows. "Here are the sewers, and it would be a sin not to use them. It would be a sheer waste to have two systems going on at one and the same time—the sower system and the pan system. There are sawnrs, aud the engineer declares there is sufficient water to scour them out." The counter-peti-tioners, in addition to other matters, wish to know where is the wafer, They desire to find out how the miles and miles of drains, with but a very gradual fall, are to be kept sweet without a proper water supply scheme. They are not williug to be satisfied with the slight information granted—or rather with the total want of information of any description. Doctors notoriously disagree, and in every day life that man would be considered a fool who would swallow the ipse dixit of a doctor just because he happened to be a doctor. In a critical case he would wish to have chapter and verse for the treatment; for a wise shake of the head, for instance, is not all that is wanted to ward off the diseases that may be brought about by sewer gas. The only possible argument in favor of the Board's Bill, as far as we see, is that it will of necessity force a water supply scheme down the throats of the inhabitants. But during the interval between the turning of excreta into the sewers and the proper flashing power being obtained by a water supply the public may look out for squalls if the Bill passes. It is no laughing matter having a drainage system without the most perfect means of cleaning the sewers. Any body who roads the home papers will know full well the er.tent to which the terror of the "Drain Fiend " has eaten into the life of those living in some of the larger towns. In the west end of London even, where one would think that, if any where, there would be safety from typhoid fever brought on by sewer gas there is at present a panic with regard to typhoid fever. The following quotation, for instance, may show the lengths to which matters have gone : " It is possible that the drainage of the West end streets may form the subject of a judicial enquiry very shortly, as a gentleman who rented a house near Piccadilly declines to pay the whole of the rent with which he is charged ou the ground that he caught typhoid fever during his tenancy. But whether public attention be or be not directed to this] ff rightful evil through the medium of the Law Courts, it is imperative that some measures be speedily taken for getting at the actual state of the West end drainage." This, and hundreds of other quotations that might be given, shows that sewer gas is not a thing to be played with. The best engineering talent has been expended on the West end drainage, and yst this gss poisons the inhabitants. It will bo the duty of the

House of Representatives to see a very clear case before it passes the Bill of the Board—and such a case, we hold, has by no means been made ont.