AN IMPROVED SYSTEM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3153, 2 April 1909, Page 4

AN IMPROVED SYSTEM.

For a considerable period past the Masterton Borough Council have been much worried in regard to the con dition of the Borough septic tank and sewage farm. When the drainage works were originally instituted the town was proud of its drainage and sewage farm, and the latter, as a matter of fact, was said to be unnecessarily large. Our municipal fathers talked ' jubilantly of the drainage system, and we were told that Masterton was the first town in the Dominion to possess a really up-to-date system of drainage,'viz., one on the septic tank principle, In the twinnling of an eye, so to speak, everyone was familiar with the family history of aerobies and their actions, and the entire municipality was. generally speaking, if we may accept the utterances of Councillors on the point, full of knowledge and full of pride. Alas, Tine, the great searcher out of all thing 9, was going to destroy the blissful dream of the municipal authorities. . Not a great deal of time had elapsed before it was stated that the tank was not doing its work. It had been a success for a while, but what was wrong? Several causes were suggested, and general dissatisfaction reigned for a considerable period. The drainage works at the outfall were a municipal worry, and there was reason to fear that they were a standing menace to the health and comfort of those veho lived in the vicinity, especially to residents living below the sewage farm on the Ruamahanga River. There was always the prospect that the Public Health Department would wake up some fine day and take a turn in the dance to the tune of the ratepayers' pockets. Last year matters seemed inclined to culminate and the Borough Council subiritted a drainage loan proposal to the ratepayers, which the latter rejected. So far as the general public were concerned the question remained quiescent from that date until the Borough Engineer (Mr W. T. Mansfield) submitted a report to the Council meeting on Tuesday evening last —a report that has created a widespread feeling of satisfaction. That report not only disclosed that Mr Mansfield had been doing his best with the outfall works at his disposal, but that the improvements effected under his instructions are calculated to do away entirely with the vexatiuus problems that have faced the Council for a long time past, in other words, we take it, that tne town, instead' of having "a white elephant" in its outfall works has what is necessary to the satisfactory drainage of the town. The writer has visited the outfall works on various (occasions, and did so again the other day, and it was patent even to the lay mind that the present method of treatment of the sewage is incomparably superior to any that had been previously adopted. To detail the present method would only weary the reader, and possibly would fail to enlighten him. Sufficit to say that the Borough Engineer has by means of slight structural alterations of the septic tank, by the tearing up of the "concrete" filter beds, and by making a scientific use of the area of the sewage farm, brought about a condition of affairs that has every promise of proving entirely satisfactory. The outside cost of the improvements effected does not exceed

£3lO, and such a sum is the mereßt bagatelle when one considers how large an amount was involved in the proposal last submitted to the ratepayers. It is the opinion of Mr Mansfield that the improvements effected will be completely satisfactory, and that when, the effluent finds its way into the Ruamahanga River it will pass any test the Public Hfealth Department may care to put it to. It is only natural that the ratepayers should be gratified that so great an improvement has been effected, but the value of the servi;es performed by Mr Mansfield should not be lost sight of, and we should, in concluding, like to express the opinion that the Borough Council of Masterton is to be congratulated upon possessing the services of h capable, energetic and enthusiastic engineer.