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Under those conditions a man could cart any quantity of stuff to a stream and put it in, and say, " Well, I am willing to pay for it." 29. In the Public Health Act, section 20, you have damages not exceeding £50, and continuing damages for every day during which the mill or the factory insisted upon pouring solid matter into the river. Solid matter is thus absolutely stopped : a man could not go on in the face of damages like that? —No. •50. Then the damages would only be for any remaining injury after all solid matter was stopped I—Yes.1 —Yes. 31. lam supposing that we do not touch the Public Health Act at all, leaving to you sewage and all such things as are more particularly applicable to the Health Department. This is a separate Act, referring only to dairy factories and flax-mills?—l beg to differ from you. 1 think it affects very vitally the public health of the Dominion. 32. You would still have the Public Health Act, with the addition of this Act?— Pollution of rivers can be done by other means than sewage —for instance, chemicals. Later on there will be complications from industries where chemicals are employed, which have such a devastating effect on the vegetation of the rivers of the Old Country. 33. Mr. Buick.] We have had it in evidence that a septic tank has no effect on the effluent from a dairy factory —that the germ that acts in a septic tank is not bred in the effluent of a dairy factory; it requires town sewage to breed that microbe? —It has certainly an effect. In the course of a life of attempting to do something I have naturally made some very bad mistakes, and one of my most grievous mistakes was when I attempted to deal with a factory's waste by means of a septic tank. I succeeded in making one of the most abominable stinks I have ever smelt. lam referring to one at Eltham, in Taranaki. Dairy-factory effluent is quite hopeless in that way. As far as I know you can only deal with it by settling-tanks, filtration, and then broad irrigation; but it is very hard to deal with. As far as T can make out there is no known way. It is all in the experimental stage. 34. The Chairman.] We have had evidence that in the case of one factory, drainage was effected by means of a drain and small stream combined, running for eight miles witli very little fall before it finally discharged into a stream that was sufficiently strong to carry the stuff away. The land round the factory was very stiff and retentive and non-absorbent, and they had great difficulty in keeping their outfall drain in a sanitary condition. Could you suggest anything to help in such a case as that?— l believe that in the factory you refer to there are about nine different coke filters. Mr. Cuddie might be in a position to advise you on this matter ; but 1 know that even in Denmark, which is pretty up to date, they cannot suggest anything more than irrigation. It has been a tremendous problem; but. fortunately, most of our factories are near running water. That shows the necessity for a Department being consulted . with regard to the situation of factories. We now never allow a factory to be established awny from running water.

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