A POLLUTED RIVER.

Wairarapa Age, 22 February 1927, Page 4

A POLLUTED RIVER.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Being one of a party who visited Wardell’s Bridge picnic grounds yesterday, I saw for myself the cause for so much talk about the awful smell which comes from the river. On going over the bridge and down the bank about half a chain below the bridge we found a whole mass of sewerage caught up in willow branches and roots. The place was alive with flies and to our surprise there was a party of children not three chains below this germ-bed paddling in the water. There is a notice erected and signed by the County Council on the town side of the river, stuck away in some bushes, warning people not to use the water for drinking purposes. Now, as most of the picnickers use the other side, it would be wise foi the Health Depaitment to erect one there also,, or better stirt, for health’s sake, to exclude the public from any part of this river, say from To Ore Ore Bridge to five chains below Wardell’s Bridge, as all this area is being daily polluted by the borough sewerage. It is a great pity that one of the finest rivers around Mastertoh, whore hundreds of picnickers use its shady spots every week-end throughout the summer, should not be available. However, it remains for an abler pen than mine to try to remedy this state of affairs. I only hope whoever is responsible for the stench at Wardell’s Bridge wil clean it up before an epidemic breaks out. —I am, etc., "PRO BONO PUBLICO.”