The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesday# and Saturdays) SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1878.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 340, 20 July 1878, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesday# and Saturdays) SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1878.

A latb number of the Auckland StW) refe'-rihg to the importance of employing the best engineering advice procurable, upon the subject of drainage, instances the present condition of Sydney as what Auckland may come ,to ; " Like Ancklaud, the of New South Wales

"l ■ : ■ , V f\ ■ naturally drains to the sea, and the Corporation in, providing; for sewerage ; haite faithfully adhered to. ths i>lan markoVl otifc by Njitniv. In the early days ofSydney, the evils of this? system were comparatively trifling, hnt as ex* tensions were made to meet the rapidlygrowing wants of a largo population, the filth of the city was seen and felt along the shores of those magnificent bays for which Sydney harbour is famous. Every year, and with every street added to the general connection, the intolerable nuisance became intensified ; and extensive stretches of beach, polluted by the dirt of the city, festering and fermenting under the broiling summer sun, emitted a stench which was wafted far and near, carrying disease and death to homes removed from the actual breeding-place of pestilential odours. The thing became intolerable; and at last a number of ratepayers applied to the Supreme Court and obtained an injunction ordering the Council to discontinue discharging the sewage in the manner they were doing.” Expedients have in vain been tried to remedy the evils. The stench and resulting mortality continue. The services of Mr Clark, of sewage fame, were secured by the Sydney Corporation, but means were not available to carry out his suggestions, besides which it meant an entire reversal of the Sydney sewage system, works for which had cost an immense sum. The question of drainage is beginning to crop up in Carlyle. A, scheme has been proposed, the expense comparatively , trifling, which would effectively prevent ttie evils now so bitteily complained of in Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, and other growing places, where the rivers or bays have been made -the receptacles of sewage. The plan was lately approved by the Town Board members, but shelved on the score of expense. Scarcely two opinions could be held as to the effectiveness of proposed works, either as a means of carrying off storm water, or from a sanitary point of view. Thepoponlation is small, the expense estimated at somewhere between £BOO and £I,OO0 — is considered too great to baincurred, or even entertained at present. We refer to the plan lately submitted to the Town Board by Messrs Fraser and Tregear, to run a large brick drain from a point near the Catholic Ohnrch underground in a westerly direction to the sea, the emptying point being far removed from present limits and any possible extensions of the town, and equally removed from the entrance to the river. There could then be no fear of sewage being carried into the river by inflowing tides. Bo far as the upper, and what is likely to remain the 'Dec6'inpTev&pc.«£.Uift.tQwm_drainage would In a question of life and death, which is really the point to be considered—efficient drainage meaning healthfulness and longevity, inefficient drainage sickness and early death—we are of opinion that the matter of expense should not be made too much of. Taking a broad view of the question, it is more economical for ratepayers to pay a comparatively large sum in the lump, and so secure healthlulness, than to have a continual drain on private resources from individual and family sickness, with the resultant undermining of the constitution. There is, however, a tendency to adopt temporary expedients. Drainage is admitted to be a necessity, and what can be more simple-or inexpensive, it is argued, than to turn the river to. use by running an open or covered'water-course from the higher land down to it. The refuse thrown into it would not for years hurtfully affect-the inhabitants. And see at how small a cost this could be done. We rather regret that there should be a tendency to this line of argument, and fear that if a wrong beginning is made, though at first it may appear cheap, it will eventually prove dear in money and life. Money having been spent on even a temporary , work, it will be difficult to turn attention to the larger and more effective work. So much money having been spent in one direction, why* it will be argued, should we now go in another direction. Patchwork will be the result, until the river becomes sofoul as to be unbearable, and private townsfolk are driven to the lengths Sydney people have been driven to, and invoke the law to compel the authorities—Town Board or Corporation, as the case may be—to commence anew their system of drainage. The case ot Sydney is thus stated—“ The Judge’s order required that the whole system of Sydney, drainage, which 'had cost an immense ' sum of moneys should be instantaneously reversed. The Corporation could not do it; and the holders of the injunction, making further complaint, the Court ordered the sequestration of the whole city revenue. At this stage a compromise was effected, and the order of the Court was held over, pending engineering operations, All the local talent now came into full play, and from a multiplicity of infallible remedies, the Corporation adopted one warranted to deodorise the sewage, and render it sweet

and pure as mother’s milk. The design consisted in a series of charcoal strainers, over which the waters passed to their outlet.” After a trial of eighteen months the infallible cure” has proved a failure. In the words of one of the complainants" the system itself or the management of it was an absolute failnre, as the sewage flowed on to the low banks uhdeodorised, and the stench at times was overpowering, particularly when a westerly wind was blowing. It npt alone at the .Glebe that the stench was felt, but ajs9 at the south-western parts,

of Sydney, and he wondered that the • residents lived," in the place at all. It wjas enough to- make one siek to pass the place only, iind ye t r though he had applied for ikiress flereral times, no action * had been taken.” ~We should rather nothing was done at present than that a bad start should be made.