A-CLIMIE-TIZING WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4967, 22 February 1877, Page 3

A-CLIMIE-TIZING WELLINGTON.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, —Your correspondent of the 20th seems to think that tho inhabitants oh Wellington ought to accept Mr. Climie’s sewage scheme “with implicit trust.” I hope fervently that it will be just the reverse, and that all the details will be severely criticised, and undergo the scrutiny of competent judges before commiting the ratepayers to a large expenditure without possibly any corresponding benefit. In the first 'place, laying impervious earthen drains all over the city, with reticulations into dwellings, &c., would cost a very large sum. But this must be the very first step, for it would be madness to connect say three thousand water closets with flat-bottomed, leaky, perishable wooden drains, which would inevitably result in saturating the subsoil with horrible sewage. But granted that satisfactory drains were constructed every where, the question arises, where are we to get a sufficient water supply to-keep them clean and healthy ? A few weeks ago the inhabitants of Wellington in many places had to go without a cup of tea if they forgot to secure the driblet of water that trickled from the pipes for two hours diurnally. Since then we have had a new reservoir, and a kind Providence has filled it for us. But then how long will it last with bur present consumption, probably two or three weeks only, if stable washing, water engines, garden deluging, and careless open taps continually running are allowed. But calculate in addition to this the effect of connecting three thousand water closets with the drains, and I believe our supply would not last for a week, and we would almost require to be connected with Lake Wanaka to keep the place healthy; for imagine the excreta of fifteen thousand people thrown into drains, and allowed to accumulate from shortness of water to wash every thing away. I may be wrong, but the shortness of our water supply I am afraid is a fatal objection to the scheme. We want at least a moderate supply of water for domestic purposes, and a copious reserve in case of fire in our preeminently wooden and windy town, and the

little streamlets we depend on will barely do 1 this in the summer when our need is the sorest. If the Town Council would descend from the sablime down to the practical, and send dustcarts round every morning to collect household rubbish, and insist that all water closets should be emptied weekly instead of the abominable practice of running filth into the sewers, it would do more good to Wellington than building a wilderness of grandly absurd town halls.—l am, &c., Citizen.