NIGHT-SOIL DEPOT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 390, 26 August 1911, Page 5

NIGHT-SOIL DEPOT.

To The Editor. Sir,—Having read several letters in your columns in regard to the above question, I must aay some of them reflect the subject in their tone. My business took me last summer to the night-soi! depot now in use up the river, and I can assure you I did not find the pumice blossoming for Hi as the rose or smell as sweet: but I found about (50 odd empties (pans) blossoming forth in the sunshine. There was an old shed on the property, and that was upside down. To place another 3uch nuisance at the entrance to our city, alongside the railway line and opposite one of our leading industries the lime kilns—alsu directly opposite the site of the dairy factory and within easy distance of our public school, where our rising generation have to spend so many of their pleasant hours,l consider will be detrimental to the health, wealth and social status of our little community. Some years ago, I lived within three-quarters of a mile of a sanitary depot, and all the residents round found the flies attracted by the depot unbearable in the summer time. Another fact I might mention was that the residents who occupied small farms adjacent to a stream which flowed past the depot were prohibited from allowing milking cows to drink from the stream, and were compelled to fence off a portion of the paddocks adjoining. This in itself is a matter which needs to be kept in view, as the dairying industry is on the move around us, and any hardships imposed upon the settlers along our river means keeping back an otherwise prosperous industry. In nearly every instance where epidemics occur in a district the cause is proved to be the result of burying nightsoil in the garden or allowing a quantity of nightsoil to accumulate or overflow on the premises of some careless residents. Yet our Council propose dumping this matter in large quantities right in the doorway of our fair city in a loose porous sand, and the prevailing wind which follows up the river course will bring the rising gases right into our houses. Surely there are acres of land towards Waiteti where the soil is heavier and the ground would benefit by the additional matter and the necessary ploughing. Proper apparatus could then be erected for washing and steaming the empty pans before their return to town. A

supply of water could be obtained by tapping the main pipe which is now laid to bring in our city supply, and the filth accumulated in the washing could also be ploughed in, instead of putrifying the river. I trust our Council will give this matter greater consideration, and leave personalities out of the question, and decide on a position for the depot from a practical, theoretical and health point of view —I am, etc., HARRY JANE, King street.