The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1902, CITY DRAINAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1902, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1902, CITY DRAINAGE.

For tite-eawas* ttiat lacks assistance Pop the -wrong ttiat rusecls resistance For thte future in th.« distance And. tii« good that we can d.o.

The petition, of Ponsonby ratepayers protesting- against fthe City Council's intention to carry the drainage from St. Mary's Road sewer across the beach to low water mark by means of an open channel raises a question of the utmost importance to the public. We should have thought that this petition was so manifestly in the interests of public health that the Council and its officers woiild at once have seen the necessity of complying with its prayer. To our amazement, however. we learn that the City Engineer reported that similar sewers discharging into the harbour were working satisfactorily and without any danger to public health. He, had inspected the Mechanics' Bay channel this week and found it perfectly clear, the receding tide cleansing it twice daily. He saw no need for incurring extra expense, but said there would be difficulty in carrying off ordinary house drainage to low water mark Dy meaas of a covered drain pipe, the additional cost of which would be about £200. Now, whether such open drains,even when washed twice a day by the tide, are a public nuisance is not a question of engineering- but of fact, -wliicli anyone endowed with ordinary olfactory organs is quite as capable of judging- as Mr Wrigg. The citizens •of Auckland have had a considerable experience of these open drains, and we do not hesitate to suy that tlu City Engineer will find very few to agree with him. Only a .short time has elapsed .since I'onson.by was delivered from a pestilential nuisance of this character at Freeman's Hay, which, there is reason to believe, was accountable for a good deal of sickness and death among the people exposed to its offensive stench. That the Council deliberately meditates the creation of similar nuisances ou every beach around the city Js a matter that is calculated to create the gravest alarm. The bay which formed the subject of this petition is one frequented by large numbers of youngpeople for boating- and bathing purposes. The young- men belonging1 tc the Went End -Rowing Club arc of an

age when the human system is most liable to typhoid fever in its severest form, and the proposal that they shall be exposed, when taking their morning exercises, to the effluvia of an, open drain in which is concentrated sewage of a large district appears to us nothing less than criminal. If it be persisted in we hope that immediate steps will be taken to obtain an injunction against the Council in the Supreme Court.

This question nob only affects St. Mary's Bay but other beaches, which are now largely used by the citizens of Auckland for healthful recreation. A sewer is being constructed in Wal-lace-street, Ponsonbv, for which m>

proper outfall to the sea is provided. Another is proposed in Herne Bay road and adjacent streets, so that it would appear that before long this boasted scheme of city drainage, about which we have received so many assurances from responsible city functionaries, will culminate in a series of villainous public nuisances. We undertake to say that nothing- at all parallel to it can be Touuu In any city of Australasia. This incident illustrates and emphasises the statement which we have made many times in these columns that the haphazard method which the Council h«. pursuing in carrying out city drainage can only result in wasteful and scandalous inefficiency, which in the end will have to be repaired at an enormous cost, to the ratepayers. Every important city in New Zealand, except Auckland, has now undertaken the work of drainage hi a systematic manner; but lie re with fatuous persistence the Council disregards every remonstrance, and goes on spending thousands of pounds e.\nry yv;.ir upon drainage carried out in a piecemeal way without coming to any clear and definite decision as to the ultimate disposal of the sewage of the city. We believe that with such a tide scour as there is in Auckland harbour, a complete system of water carriage drainage applicable to 'the whole city ' could be provided at no greater cost than the householders pay for the offensive sanitary service now in vogue. What opinion is entertained of that system in cities which have more enlightened conceptions of modern sanitation may be gathered from the following extract which we cull from

an article on the plague in a recent issue of the "Sydney Daily Tele-

graph":—"The difficulty, it is to be feared, Is not with the law so much as with its municipal administrators. It is strange indeed that a matter of such supreme and palpable importance as this should be neglected. Yet it is being absolutely ignored, in sheer ignorance, apparently, in some cases, while in others the dangerous practice 6f comfortably taking things for granted is followed. As an example of the latter, it was officially reported to the local council the other day that North Sydney was 'clean,' so that no special health pre* cautions were necessary there. Yet in some of the most thickly-populated streets of that municipality there are

houses unconnected with the sewerage, just as though there were no sanitary laws there and no public health to safeguard. Actually night-

carts are used in some of the principal streets of that virtually metropolitan borough. To call it 'clean' and assume that nothing need be done in the sanitary way is therefore to take a bold course, to say the least of it. It is this spirit of selfsatisfied inefficiency, as much as the other of positive indifference or io-norance, that will be blamable if tL plague tightens its present i ominous hold." We have been reluctant to stir tip conilict between the City Council and the Harbour Board, but as it has now been officially intimated that the magnificent drainage scheme of the Council. — prodigious conception ! — consists in turning the filth of the city into uncovered channels on the flat beaches of our foreshore, it behoves the custodians of our harbour to take some definite action to protect the important interests entrusted to their keeping. Off St. Mary's Bay there is an extensive sandbank, creating an almost still water lagoon on the inner side, so that the filth which the. City Engineer, with cheerful optimism, thinks the Corporation has satisfactorily disposed of by turning it on to the property of the Harbour Board, will find its way

back to the base of the cliffs, which are now adorned with handsome private residences. We believe that a

few good outfalls, carried out to

deep water, would satisfactorily dispose of the drainage of the city for the next fifty years without, any damage to the harbour, but the idea of leaving these open channels indefinitely as part of the drainage system of the city is so revolting that the Board will, fail in its duty

if it does not notify the Council at once that proper outfalls, such as I were insisted, upon in the case of the ! Devonport drainage scheme, must be i provided. If the Hoard neglects this i necessary measure to protect its I interests it will find itself ultimately saddled with liabilities, as in the case of the Freeman's Bay sewer, which should properly be borne by the city. We have hitherto cherished the iiope that the Mayor would do for the flralnage of Auckland what he has shown a disposition to do for its water supply. We still do not entirely despair of him taking action in this matter. If, however, he manifests a disposition to continue the policy erf drift, will some Councillor move for a return showing- what the citizens are paying for the disgusting pail system now in vogue, and an

estimate of the cost of substituting a water-carriage system with proper outfalls to deep water. We venture to say that when this information is available, it will be seen that the present system while unspeakably nasty has not even the merit of being- cheap.