The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4490, 26 May 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1883.

The County water supply has proved a great boon to the populace, bat complaints are rife as to the quality of the liquid distributed. No precautions are taken to preserve the purity of the aqueous fluid given to us. Any matter reaching the race "flows gently on," and by the time the water is drawn by people in the Borough, it is not of the purest. The long course over which the race must pass very naturally causes impurities to accumulate, as the eels and other similar animals with which its source and course are alive, must furnish ample food for its pollution, and when those objects are passed through the race dead and alive, and delivered to consumers unfiitered, it seems only natural that some people will object. The excreta of animals, the bodies of deceased canine and feiine members, and various other poisonous matters find their way into the race and the dam, and the thought that we have to swallow all this is, to be mild, unpleasant. The absorption of this disagreeable matter by the human system hardly tends to health; therefore we desire to have the cause of it removed. The remedy is a very simple one, and it is somewhat surprising that it has not struck those whose duty it is to look after those matters before. Filter beds could easily and cheaply be constructed, and prevent all this poison passing through the service pipes from the supply. At a very moderate outlay the necessary three small'dams could be erected, through which the water should percolate and pass into the pipes in a pure state, Jtfo scientific

process need be used, such a simple method as haying first a dam—not necessarily large—filled with large boulders, whicb are easily obtainable; next a similar construction holding smaller stones throut-h which the water would pass and become clearer, and then a third receptacle containing fine stoDes and sand, with—if practicable—a layer of '. charcoal. This process would prevent the service pipes receiving any refuse that might enter the race or dam. The presence of charcoal is not absolutely necessary, bat it is beneficial, and the security of health would be greater were such a course adopted. The purity of water should be made a very serious consideration by the Council, and every effort to improve it is a duty which should not be neglected. The cost of the work we propose would be a" mere trifle compared . with the advantage the people would reap from it. Of course, we do not intend to give an estimate of it, but from figures in our possession we are in a position to assert that the expenditure required is not too great to prevent the work being immediately proceeded with. We hope to see some steps taken in the matter without delay.