Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5346, 16 May 1878, Page 2

Me. Clark’s report on the drainage of the city, which wo publish elsewhere, treats the subject in a very exhaustive manner, and shows that much thought has been giveii to the whole question he was retained by the City Council to advise them upon. Of course the water-car-riage system is recommended, and perhaps how we willhear no-more of those simple, .but worse than useless,, schemes for discharging the sewage into 1 the bay, which have been propounded and warmly supported by amateurs, and, strange;.to say, by engineers also. There have been an abundance of plans for the drainage of the city, but all niay belaidiaside except--ing that now submitted by Mr. Clark and the one laid before ’the City Council by Mr, D. Climib, 0.E., in January, 1877. We cannot now compare the two schemes, and it would be out of place ,to laud either at the expense of the other. Both agree as to the main principle, but there is groat divergence as to many important details. Doubtless the relative advantages of each will be duly weighed.; but it will he well . to say here that Mr. Climib was instructed to prepare a scheme not to cost more "than £BO,OOO, whereas Mr. Clark was not, we believe, limited as to amount. -It :will be remembered that Mr. Climib proposed to have the pumping station at Kilbirnie. He suggested that it would be 1 better to hare it at Pirie-street, but this idea was rather kept in the. background lowing to the existence of objections to its being placed there, which it was feared would be ‘ fatal - to his .scheme.. , Mr., Clark, speaking with And ‘nrit being influenced by merely local considerations, declares for a site near the kerosene bond. Apian accompanying the report shows the proposed course of the low level main sewer and of a high-level intercepting sewer, the latter being carried at an elevation which will'enable its contents’to’be discharged in Drummond-street at a height of 28 feet above’ high water. This intercepting sewer, is commenced "at Fitzherbertterraco, at 56 feet above high-water mark, passes close to Parliament buildings, across Bolton-street and Aurora-terrace,’ ’ reaches >Vellingtori-tqrrace south of the tJlub, and. thence passes through a tunnel 25 chains long-to Boulcott-street, is taken toi.the, junction of Ouba-street and In-gestre-street, and finally;, to Drummondstreet. This gives a rough idea of the portion of the city which will be drained by gravitation through this sewer. Another intercepting sewer commences above Oriental-quay, - and skirting the high ground running parallel to Clydaquay and" Kent-terrace, finds its way to. Drummond-street, . The main low-level sewer starts on the Hutt-’road, and ends at the pumping station. From the pump well a cast-iron rising main, 24 inches in diameter, will be laid along Cambridgeterrace and Adelaide-road to Drummondstreet, and this-will necessitate a lift of 37 feet to force the sewage to 28 feet above sea level. - From this point the collected sewage of the whole, city will go through a sewer Ilf chains to’the tuiniel, winch will be If miles long, and will be finally discharged at the isthmus between Lyell Bay and Evans Bay, at’a height‘bf 22'feet'over' highwater mark. It is intended to utilise the sewage by taking it ori the sand, and the clauses treating of this are especially interesting. -The above gives but a very faint 1 outline of the scheme, and • we recommend the full report as well worth a careful perusal. _ Speaking of the existing state of drainage, or rather,of the existing want of drainage, Mr. Clark refers to the high death rate of the city, as compared with the. country ; the death's being .117 in excess of the average of the country districts, and one-third of these, being from diseases of the zymotic character, were preventable. No doubt this is greatly owing to the incompletness of the present system for removing’ nightsoil, inasmuch as of 333 d dwellings it had been collected from only 1893. There is another evil which is highly darigerous, the practice of emptying water-closets into wretchedly constrrioted wooden drains, which con-, stantly : gat chbked ujj, and thus.become “elongated cesspools.” Mr Clark makes a brief reference to the shocking smells that come from these box drains; Both these evils would . be removed by the water carriage system, and it is satisfactory to know that such a plan may be’regarded as certain to be adopted for Wellington. The estimated cost of the whole of the works is £131,000, and 10 per cent.. for compensation, coxltihgencies,'engineering,. &c., brings the total to £145,000. The annual working charges are estimated at £1434, and this, with C per cent, interest on £145,326,: £8720, makes £10,154. This strikes one as a large sum, but on examination it does not seem very formidable. ; A rate of lOd. in the pound would meet it, arid ‘ under’ 1 ’the ■present deplorable : state .of things many people have to pay as much as 1 that for' work not? efficiently or- thoroughly done that would bo performed safely and surely by a good watercarriage system. For many years drainage engineers in the old countries had to -fight prolonged and weary battles against prejudice begotten of ignorance. -.At, length’ they conquered, and the popular belief that sewers must be constantly foul arid subject to bursting, and that all drains leading to houses must be certain conductors of poisonous’ gases, is rapidly vanishing. When Mr, Climib first proposed his plan at least eight-tenths of the people were against it, but owing mainly to his persistency in advocating his views, and the ability with which he vanquished one opponent after another, public opinion has so changed that a popular vote was pronounced in favor of the water-carriage system as proposed to be applied by him. It will not be too much to say that had' Mr. Clark’s scheme been submitted in December, 1876, it would have been treated with but scant ceremony, and the cry that the natural outfall was the proper one would: have been, shouted loudly. Fortunately, during the pastfifteeri months the public mind has been so much exercised on, the drainage question that sound sexise now has the best of it.

We do not wish to ignore Mr. Napier Bell’s report on Mr. Olimie’s a' most Severe criticism, which was dealt with by Mr, Olimie at the , time of its publication. _ It was thought that Mr. Bell had an idea that the natural outlet, the harbor, was the best one for the Wellington drainage, at all, events for some years to come, and this possibly led him 1 to view any pump-, ing arrangement as'unnecessary. Ho did notuonsidpr himself called upon to propose a scheme, and therefore wo do not know with certainty what his views were. Like Mr. Olimie, ,ho . was in favor of a largo area being drained by an intercepting sewer, but he did not venture so far in that direction as Mr. Clark has.

‘Perhaps savings may be effected in,the expenditure, but taking Mr. Clark’s own total, wo do not see that the sum he mentions should bo a bar to the .carrying out of a thoroughly efficient system of sewer-

age; for oven if the-,citizens had to pay a rate "of tonponoe ixi the pound, their gain in comfort, cleanliness, and health would far more.than counterbalance such a tax.