MR. CLIMIE'S DRAINAGE SCHEME.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4986, 16 March 1877, Page 3

MR. CLIMIE'S DRAINAGE SCHEME.

Mr. Climia has mode up the following addenda to his report, for presentation to the City Council : AN AFFHOXIMATE ESTIMATE OP THE COST OF A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF SEWEKAGE FOB THE CITY OF WELLINGTON. The estimate includes forty and a-half -miles of drainage (with tunnel) embracing an area of 1000 acres; steam-engine of 50-horse-power, pumps, buildings, &c, and'two reservoirs (one in the Tinakori-road and one at outfall). For the; completion of the works the coat would be about £80,104. , ' ' Ariniidl "Expenses. : Interest on £Bo,lo*, at 5 per, cent ~','• ,«. £4005 Expenses fpr:j>umplnir ; ;..„." .j [ .'. .. 2000 Bundrr expenses (or repairs, attending to ventilators, &c. .-...:.. .. .. .. ; lfioo ! • _ £7505 This amount is based npon calculations for a population of 50,000. In order to give the total annual cost to the inhabitants, a sum of £2500 may be added to the above, as representing the yearly charge in respect of providing water-closets. Taking 10,000 water-closets, at £2 10*. each, gives a total of £25,000 ; and,, as this will not be a reenrring expenditure, it is but fair to, distribute the sum over a period of ten years, of ss. per annum for each of the 10,000 houses. The cost at the present rate of charge by the cartage system would average £2 10s. per house per annum to remove only a very limited portion of the sewage. The system of water-carriage provides, in addition to the removal of nightsoil, for the carrying away of chamber slops and other waste water connected with household matters ;' also, water, &c, from manufactories, breweries, stables, laundries, and similar places, For this I have allowed five cubic feet per head ter day, making a total for a population of 50,000 of 01,250,000 cubic feet per annum, at a cost, as estimated above, of ,£10,005.

AN APPROXIMATE ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF REMOVING NIOIIT- : SOIL IN THE CITY OF WELLINGTON. . I desire to contrast the coat of the present mode with the system. I recommend. ~ As far as I have been able to,ascertain, the expense of removing the nightsoil only, by the, present sjstem, of manual labor and cartage, amounts to about fifteen pence per cubic foot. This, allowing eight cubic feet per annum for each individual (the quantity found to be the average in towns where a record has been kept), would, for a population taken at 50,000, provide for the removal of only 400,000 cubic feet, at an annual charge upon the city of £25,000.

i These" figures prove that the cost per cubic foot of removing sewage by the present system is 228 times greater than it would be under the water-carriage system I advocate; 'in other words, 228 cubic feet would be removed for the sum which it now costs to remove one cubic foot. , The cost of removing 91,250,000 cubic feet per year by the water/carriage system would—including £2500, the.yearly proportion of the cost of water-closets—be about £IO,OOO, whereas the cost of removing only 400,000 cubic feet by cartage at the rate now charged amounts to £25,000 per annum. • IMPROVED; SANITAKY CONDITION. j -In support of my view as to fresh sewage not being dangerous if removed ere decomposition seta in;;\ I append an extract from a letter which appeared in the "Journal of theSooiety of Arts, December 15, 1876, from Alfred Carpenter, M.D., aS.S., Cantab. The letter is dated 11th December, 1876, and is written from Croydon, where the drainage works have'! been in operation foreome years.. Dr. Carpenter says:—"Fresh sewage doeß not give-off any elements of danger, and it cannot become dangerous-if it be kept in motion.- Stagnation being at the'root of all mischief, 'mdve'on' is the order which should be engraved at the foot of every house drain. This order should apply, to air as well as to sewage—air upwards, sewage downwards, being the directions. No evil will then arise from sewer gas, for no gas will be developed. There " should be free' cur-' rent of air through all sewers and every branch of a house drain. - No stagnation should be possible in any single foot of either." j This extract fully.bears out what I stated in a previous portion of my report respecting the speedy removal.'-of, sewage, arid may be taken as a valuable corroboration of my assertion, that it is qtiite practicable so to arrange the drahv'ge of Wellington that sewage of one day old should not remain within the city, but should be moving towards the outfall as soon as produced. In motion there is safety, but in stagnation their is danger. It has been demonstrated beyond dispute, that sewage in a state of decomposition is the chief source of atmospheric impurity, and the main cause of excessive sieknesss, with a consequent high rate of mortality. The following table affords much important information as to the improved sanitary condition of towns consequent upon the construction of sewerage works by the water carriage system. It gives the results in ten towns, taken from the records collected by the medical officers of the Privy Council, and published in the Ninth Annual Report. These figures prove that the works have accomplished the end for which they were inaugurated :

h% °"o. n r phoid r cent. kte of ent. >.g » d g^ p. s*S. ">. o go o o c I.S£ 3 oS -ft -Name ol xMace 3^ "el |*3 ||| '■§ . '-§3 "3 a o f4 Iss a '5 CO •a > t3ftj «£ b! ■K* " Cardiff 32,954 33 2 22-6 32 40 17 Newport 24,766 31-8 216 32 36 82 Croydon 30,229 237 189 22 63 17 Salisbury £,030 27'5 21-9 20 75 49 Merther Tydvil Macclesfield . 52,778 33'2 26"2 18 60 11 27,475 29-8 237 28 48 31 Banbury 10,238 23-4 206 12} 48 41 Ely 7,847 239 206 14 66 47 TVarwick 10,570 227 21-0 7J .62 19 Dover .. 23,108 226 20-9 7' 36 20 ' '■ ——— '• —: -—• '• —■—