The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1901. THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 127, 24 June 1901, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1901. THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE.

The prevalence of typhoid fever, not only in New Plymou'h but at Waitara and other townships in Taranaki, is a matter which deserves the serious con siddrition of the lo'al authorities. For some reason in TaraDaki this disease appears to appear and re-appear with a regrettable frequency considering the fact that its appearance is generally considered to be due to the neglect of the laws of sanitation. With the parous S)il and heavy rainfall there should be no • difficulty in making proper sanitary provisions in ell parts of the district, and thefrequ*nfc re appearance of typhoid is certainly a reproach to us is a people. In our ciuntry d;stricts any neglect of the laws of sanitation is quite inexcusable, and the. few cas'S of typhoid which occur amongst the farming community show that on Jthe whole sanitary matters are f"irly well attended to. In the towns, however, the community gen/rillv may be extremely careful, but still suffer severely through the neglect o£ one careless householder. The towo population of T&ranaki is growing so fast that the question of sanitation is beeomiug one of the most important the local authorities have to face. A short time ago wa published an interesting and exceedingly able report by Dr, Valin'ine on the septic tank system, and it appears to us that this is the system of the future, beaausi although the several towns in Tsranaki may go in for elaborate systems of drainage, the ultimate disposed of th« sewage is really the vital question. The septic tank syg'em appears to meet this difficulty." tho or.ly trouble biing the expense. A very interf sting report has been pub lished on the treatment of I/icdoi fewago by Proftsaor F. Glows, who in we'l known as a high chemical authority, end who has been the scientific advisor ta the Drainage C mmittee for some yews, which appaar* to be a very valuable modification of the septic tank system, and ti be one that would m.*et the case of N«w Ply mouth aid Waitara admirably, in fact would be sui'able wherever there was a large body or fiiw of water to carry away the liquid effluent frjm the filter beds. The above mentioned report deals, of course, with operations '•n a much larger rcale than could be attempted here, but the principles which are set out apply to all communities, largi or amill. It appears that not so many years ago a'l th« sewage of London was regularly poured into the river in the neighboui hood of h city. The sand, mud and other washiugs of the roads hid the tendency to reduce the depth of the river, while thn *-ol>d portions of the sewage matter ai riving f*st r than it rould be removed by Ihu rivi-r, accumulated as a deposit oa the forrshore, ard floated n the siirfnco of the s ream. The proc ss of putrefaction rtndered the fiver almoS' intolerable in summer wra'her to th r se who lived on its banks or navig'ttd its waters. The first in the direction of obviating this evil

was the removal of the outflow fifteen * miles below London. This did not j alter the condition materially as re- 1 garda_those whoss business lay in ships, I while the rapid extension of the city j mi.de sonrie other of treatment' Oheraicil methods were then adopted, and indeed a'e still in vogue. The solid masters are screene! off, and the se -agi 'is the., mixed with eolufiona of limo sir. J sulphate of iron. The chenical su 1 tui e thus formed ore allowed to set.liby sending thi sew-.gc slowly t.hroug! parallel chinrlt'ls t) the river. The settled matter is sent in tank steame s to be d scharged at sea bij ond the river's mouth, whila the l'qaid effluent passes into the stream. This preco x has proved to a Urge degree eucce-sFul The foreshore has been reclaimid from its formar foul condition, and the stream itself ne longer stinks in the nostril* ofthese who live on or by it. The effluent, Jnlthcugh freed from solid water visible to the oyo, still uontaics-large quantities of pu refyicg :nfatter in solution. It is only clarified and not purified s wage, and in time may well nuisai.ces hardly less erions than these which resulted from the (Id system. To overcome >r;h»B difficul'y the aid of the bacteriologis*; has biea invoked. We are so accustomed to regard bact ria as the cause of all the ills thit flesh is heiv to, that many people are unaware that we probably du'ivu as much go ,d as evi l from the work of those humblo organisms. Thuie are inmitnerablj lowly forms of lif« in our world, all invisib'e to the keenest vi ion, who perform for us a vast amount of useful work, without which' life would be impossible It is this c'ass of bactoiia which it is propojed to utilise for the purification «f se-v-ige. They exist to the number, we a e told, of 300,000 in each drop of sewage. They only require to be placed under suitable conditions in order to effect the rapid and inoffensive ra -.solutun of putrefying matter into harmlefs products. The proiaps adopted is as follows. Sewage is allowed to fl >w into large tanks containing fragment of coke about the size of walnuts. As soon as the liquid reach»a th- upper lev.l of the cokebed the infliw is s'opped- and the tauk remans u.,touchod for two or three hours Afte 1 that the liquid fcas ullowfd to flow out and the t'.nk wa* thoroughly a- r-toil". It has teea found feasible to fill e.ch ank in this wsy thiei or four times in twenty four hours. It is n cess- ry to screen off the solid matter f. om the sewage, and even to submit the 2 liter particles of a-lid matter -wool, hs-ir, wood, straw, and so on—to a p-ren of sedimentation, otherwise thes p riic'o) ire d'.pjeited on the surface of he coke and check to a large ilegr 0 t.he bict-irial action With these pru - mutions it is found that the liquid fflusnt from the coke tank is entirely fr.e from offensive odour, and remains s j even itfrer it has hec.n kept for a !month at summer beat < ith-r in dosed >r open vessels. It is quite clear, except tftor heavy rain and it has bo. n fou d possible to keep fish in it fo ■ 1 mn. that .1 timi without Any notic.abl' effe.t on their condition. Chemical a. a'ys's shows that the treatment over 50 per cent of the dis«olv*d ma'ter, while a second course of treatment disposes of a further 20 per cen'. It sesrog evident that the p rtion 1 f til.n matter j removed is just th.t poiion which would become rapilly of! naive. It has been found, as might hate icen expected, that the introduction cf the resjlting effluent into the lo'tfw the Thimes is unobjec ionabl--\ The river at that point is generally muddy and brac-ish, r>nd coneequently unfit fir drinking Even the smill quantity of orginic matter which the affluent still contains would gradually disappear under the ction of the bonificeni bacteria which remains in it after it h a left the tank-), Wo have a'ready noticed thit it dots n; t interfere with the uiaintenanca of hpalthy fiah life. The extreme eimplici'y of this process is its greatest recommenda'ion, and it is entirely well .vurih the cireful consideration of thai sanitary authorities.