Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 382, 15 August 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Lord PaliMerston's definition of dirt as " matter in- 'the wrong place " is suggestive to n8 of the direction in which the problem of sewage may be solved. The easiest, the moat efficient, the least expensive, method by which the night soil, and other corrupting matter charged with fever and pestilence, may be conveyed away from populous places to fertilise the fields, is a subject that ought to engage our attention. Among the methods proposed is that of carrying away the foscal products by water carriage along large sewers ; but this demands 2501b5. of .wuter to carry; away the daily excreta of a single individual. 1 This, besides poisoning the rivers and rendering them fishless, Is bo- enoimcmoly expensive that it can hardly be thought of. AiioUior ma-kliod is by means of earth closets, which, in addition to the procuring of soil from without, adds very materially to the weight to be exported, and is far from being either convenient or inexpensive. The system of cesspools, so prevalent around us. we can only regai"d with disgust ; some uf them very near to wells must contaminate the water ; and whether the -water be used for cooking or other domestic purposes, we can orily regard it as tainted to greater or less degree with the elements of disease and death. Anyone, therefore, who could abolish such plague-spots and supply a ready process by which the health of towns might be secured and the purposes of agriculture subserved, is entitled to be regarded as a benefactor ; and we are glad to call attention to a new method of drainiug away the offensive matter of towns on pneumatic principles. The inventor i 3 a Captain Liermir. By this system "the dirfc is literally blown out of every house unnoticed by the inmates." An extract from an article iv " Good Words " will give our readers some idea of the mechanical arrangements of this system :— "ln a building, in any convenient part of a town, ia placed a steam engine, wfyioh drives au airvpump, so as to maintain about f vacuum in certain cast-iron hermetically-closed reservoirs below the floor. From these reservoirs central pipes radiate in all directions, following the main streets^ On these central pipes are laid, from distance to distance, street reservoirs below the pavement. Prom the Btreet reservoirs up and 'down the street, are main pipes* communicating by short &anch pipes with the closets of each house. All the junctions of pipes with reservoirs_are furnished with cocks-, which' can be shut off or turned on at pleasure, like water mains, Th,e vacuum created in 'the centre building reservoirs can thus be. cpmmunicated to any given street reservoir, so as to furnish the motive power by which, when the connections with the houses are opeued, all the cjosets are simultaneously emptied. When their contents reach the central reservoir, they are in like manner forced through, the. central tubes to the reservoirs under the central building, and thence transferred to a closed tank above ground, from which they are decanted into barrels without any escape of foul air. This is done every twenty-four hours, before the excreta ferment and become offensive, and they are at ojjee converted into 2>oudrette without exposure to the air."' The system is not only commended by the fact of .the smallest minimum of offeusivehess in. the smell, but by its economy. Sold as poudrette the fcecal products of each individual in the population is- estimated to realise about 103. a • year. Tlie inyentor even realised a profit out of his experimental trial of his system in the barracks of Frag, his sole remuneration being a concession of the manure for a period of fifteen yeara. Arrangements are. in process to- have the system introduced as an experiment in- an English town not exceeding 10,000 inhabitants, when it is fully expected it will be adopted by all the larger cities of the United Kingdom. Already it has been introduced with marked succesa into Leiden, Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Okniitz, Brim, and in part of the Exhibition Building at Vienna. $ ur friends in Dunediu had better pause before constructing a sewer across to the Ocean Beach, or anywhere else. The system is ■w<>rthy of study, and we hope the time will come even when the. city of Lawrence will have, abolished all its ceaspoi >&, and by the plan of pneumatic drainage will keep every house sweet, and by its roadway will convey away the dirt from the wrong- place, i.e., near our houses, to the right place, i.e., to fertilise the