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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5050, 31 May 1877, Page 2

As the subject of drainage and sewage is just now exciting attention in Wellington we may mention that the Sewage and Health Board of Sydney have just recommended a new scheme for that city. The scheme briefly is, that the sewage which now finds its way into Port Jackson through the existing sewers, or which otherwise would be similarly disposed of through sewers to be hereafter constructed, is to be diverted by means of intercepting sewers into a tunnel discharging at Ben Buckler Point, near Bondi. After much consideration, and some fluctuations of opinion, the Board decided ou recommending this plan in preference to diverting the immense body of sewage to Botany, to be there treated upon the land. To utilise it thoroughly would require a very large area of land, and would, the Board believe, form a larger sewage farm than exists in the world. They believe that the laud disposable in the direction of Botany is well adapted for sewage farming, as it has been proved at Bautzio that mere shifting sea-sand answers the purpose. The Board also believe that our climate would produce results far more favorable than could be hoped for in the North of Europe. But these, they say, are only opinions, and, in the present infant and experimental state of the science of sewage farming, they could not recommend an experiment ou so large a scale. Nor do they think that anything would be gained by treating the sewage of the northern slopes by “downward intermittent filtration.” The system proposed by the Board will only divert the sewage of such portions of the city as are at sufficient elevation to allow of its discharge by gravitation. The sewage of the narrow area along the shores will still find its way into the harbor ; but as this area is so small, and occupied mostly by warehouses, offices, and other buildings where little sewage is produced, the Board does not anticipate any perceptible nuisance from this source, or any nuisance that could not be dealt with. In the exercise of the discretion left to the Board, they have not included Balmain, Camperdown, Marriokville, nor other distant suburbs, in the general scheme of sewerage which they recommend.

The City Solicitor, Mr. Travers, was to have had a private meeting with the Council yesterday afternoon. We believe that Mr, Travers is not satisfied with certain circumstances connected with his relations to the Corporation of Wellington. It was recently mooted, for instance, that he should draft a lease, to be subsequently printed, and used for leasing the portions of the Town Belt to he shortly submitted to competition hy auction. That would entail one charge hy Mr. Travers for drafting, and no legal - charges to the lessees. Mr. Travers naturally considers this unjust from a professional point of view, and wants to prepare a separate lease in each instance, promising to make his charges as moderate as possible, which of course means moderate in the extreme, as a promise of this kind from a legal gentleman generally exceeds expectations in its fulfilment. • There have been some complaints, it is true, with regard to the legal charges in connection with properties advertised some time ago for sale, in consequence of non-payment of rates; but these do not apply in the present instance. In connection with this subject, we may mention- that a correspondent has again addressed us on the question of the City Solicitor's lease of a portion of the Town Belt. We may say that the matter is not one of public interest. Mr. Travers has a lease of certain acres, forming as some think the cream of the Town Belt, for 21 years at £1 an acre. The leases to bo shortly competed for will be for If years. Mr. Travers obtained his, as has been said, as a private citizen, in a perfectly legitimate manner.

Some time ago the Queensland Government inaugurated a policy for railway extension and settlement of the land, which, though bold and original, lacked the element of, prudence. Briefly, the proposal seems to have been to sell land, in a part of the country where a railway was required, in such quantities as to recoup the first cost of a lino of railway being earned through it. The result does not appear to have been a brilliant success, as will bo gathered from the following extract from a Rockhampton paper, the Capricornian : —“ The results of the recent Crown lands sales in the Western Railway Reserve are not re-assuring. Up to date the sale of pre-emplivo selections, the proceeds of two auctions, and other sums, make a total of £210,000 to the credit of the Western Railway Reserve Fund. Financially, the transaction may be regarded as fairly successful ; but as an outcome of Liberal policy it is a miserable failure. From 200 to 300 square miles of the finest land in the colony have fallen into the hands of a few resident squatters and capitalists, who, having gained possession of the ‘ eyes’ of the country, command additional large tracts besides those actually purchased, and are thus in a position to consolidate their runs, and stop settlement. Considering that

this has been in a railway reserve, and with the finest agricultural land in Queensland — done, too, by a Ministry professing to be the friend of settlement and progress—we are at a loss to find words sufficiently expressive to characterise the solemn farce ; and it is needless to say that the results of these sales have given widespread dissatisfaction and disappointed' even some of the warmest Ministerial supporters.”