Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPT. 11, 1900. River Pollution.

Manawatu Herald, 11 September 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPT. 11, 1900. River Pollution.

To all the residents on the banks of the Manawatu river below Palmerston, it will be distressing news to learn that the Palmerston Borough < 'ouncii proposes to turn more sewage into the river. Prior to the first sewer in Palmerston being opened we led to a protest being made by our Council to the action then proposed, which will in time be of very much service to the inhabitants, as the day is not distant when the selfish action of the Palmerston people will have to be met with something that they will have to pay more attention to than a polite objection to their action. The excuse raised by the Palmerston Borough on their first despoiling our fair river was on almost the same lines that an excuse was made on the arrival of an illegitimate member of the population, viz , that it was so little. The sewage then emptied into the ; liver was probably but a small : quantity, but now it is to be increased, and if Palmerston progresses by leaps and bounds as the greatest enthusiast believes it will, there will be a great deal more sewage put into the river. Surely before Palmerston has spent too many thousands of pounds in directing the sewage to the river, is the time to check them from throwing their money away, and some united action on the part of the landowners and others who will suffer by their action should be taken. Our Council did object before any expenditure was incurred so that whatever further ! objection may be made must be taken j in good part, as our dislike to have our river spoilt has been known for years. We assert that the action by the Palmer3ton Borough Council in emptying their sewage into the river is not only selfish in the highest degree, but is unnecessary, and unsanitary. The town is sufficiently elevated to enable the sewage to be taken to the land on the western side of the Oroua river and there spread without danger to the health of the naighbours and to the vast improvement of the soil. The probable reason why this course was ngfc acted

upon has been that of expense, and under the idea that bluster would enable the river to be used, to the disadvantage of the inhabitants of the district, and the great wrong to the townspeople of Foxtcn the sewage has been emptied into it. When united action is secured and a Court of law orders the Palmerston people to stop using the river, as it will be bound to do on the facts being revealed, nearly every penny now spent, and to be spent, %on sewers in Palmerston will be so much money thrown away, as the grade to the drains to reach Awahuri is just the contrary to the grade to reach the Manawatu river. Though the Palmerston Borough imagine they have power to do wrong to save themselves expenditure, they will be unable to make their drains run up hi I . prevent not only this additional discharge of sewage, but also that which is at present being placed in the river, as unless the outlet is closed it is evident the temptation to use it to its fullest capacity cannot be resisted by our sister town. If all the ills that are bound to arise in putting sewage into a river, the volume of water of which is a steadily decreasing quantity of water each week in the summer, could only be confined to the area of the town which thus fouls its own nest, we would be prepared to sit calmly and watch the extraordinary results arising from a population of intelligent people acting in such an insane way. During the bubonic plague scare we had a lot of useful information given us by a fatherly government as to how to make our towns sanitary, and how to kill the dreaded microbes We are assured that the microbe's presence is never evident to the eye, but the deadly mite travels under all sorts of conditions, any distance, whilst retaining an immensity of power for mischief. It is unnecessary to particularise the numbers of diseases which are infectious through the action of the microbe, but every invalid distributes in many ways the germs of the disease he is suffering from. Thus we get to one real danger of this emptying sewage into a public watercourse. Whatever is unpleasant goes into the sewer, and the occupier of the premises gladdens his heart that it has passed there and thus away from the ppot he lives on. Where it may go, to him, it matters not, nor to the good people of Palmerston. Of one thing only have they made sure, that it goes into the river a mile or more away from the centre of population, into a stream of water that travels always one way, and that way away from Palmerston. The inhabitants along the river bank run the risk, every day that some infected excreta may lodge against their land, and by the water in the river falling, be left high and dry in the state that the sun can carefully develop the stored up danger to work its errand of sickness or death. Why should such an action be tolerated for a moment ? fo-- as each year passes the river may become the open sewer for Ashurst, Woodville and Dannevirke. Unless the Palmerston Borough is stopped, there can be no reason for refusing these other towns to do likewise. In England the towns have been forced to take proper steps to dispose of their sewage other than by emptying into rivers, though in their cases it haa been an almost immemoriable custom. Parliament should pass a Bill to make it impossible for such nastiness to be carried out. Nature provided a fair unsullied stream of water for the use of man and beast, and to foul this gift is but an evidence of how low down men get in the appreciation of nature, when from selfish ends they become so huddled together that they become an abomination to themselves.