The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1886 UTILISATION OF SEWAGE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2475, 13 December 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1886 UTILISATION OF SEWAGE.

Ma James C. Crawford has*published a letter in the Now Zealand Times on the utilisation of sewage. He has supplied the Wellington Corporation with a copy of a report of the method he advocates, and which he olaims to have been successful .in the Old Country. The main feature of the sobeme is that the nightsoil is carried in closely covered buckets, treated with deodorising substances, and that it is conveyed to depot, where it is subjected to the action of heat, the most effectivo means of destroying fever germs. The dried product is sold. for manure. In this town a rough and ready method of collecting nightsoil is adopted, mainly because it is one that involves little or no expenditure from the Borough funds, but we believe it- is understood that sooner or later it will be supersedod : by some more matured scheme. It might ! possibly be worth while for the Masterton Municipality to study the plan recommended by Mr Crawford, as it is one that does not entail a heavy expenditure in the first instance and which might possibly, in time, be made almost self-supporting. There is a local market in this neighborhood for artificial manure and if the night-soil in the town could be converted into a fertilising medium, equal to the article imported from Wellington, it would probably command a ready sale at five or six pounds a ton. Masterton ought to be a healthy town bnfc it is wellknown that at certain seasons of the

year the somewhat primitive-sanitary preventives in force result in n crop of fevers unci other malarial nilnwits which intlicnto sanitary negligence. Some day we are promised a proper water supply in the town which will enable the authorities to deal more effectually with sewage, bat as a drainage and water scheme is likely lo cost many thousand of pounds, it may be n long time before we get improved sanitary arrangements by these means, If, In the interim, the nightsoil sewage and garbage of the town could be conveyed to some part of the Borough where firewood is cheap and plentiful, and there converted by the action of heat into manure, tho town would be cleaner and healthier at an inconsiderable cost to the pockets of ratepayers.