The Press. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1866.

Press, Volume IX, Issue 1092, 9 May 1866, Page 2

The Press. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1866.

I The drain pipes which have been ordered from England to drain this city, are now lying in the yard of the City Council The, Co.uncil has done wisely in dangling tnein before the eyes of the stinkvpdisoned citizens, showing now easy is the remedy for the annoyance under which they suffer. Are these pipes to remain like the iron clock tower ordered by Mr. Moorhouse in 1858 —the pieces of which may be still seen—we believe at the small charge of sixpence each, in some vault or garret in the Gfovernment Buildings —as a monument of a public body which does not know its own mind ? We are told that some of the members of the City Council are inclined to sell these drain pipes. But who would buy them ? Who wants 18-inch pipes ? All the eloquence of Mr. Ollivier himself would fail to induce people to buy pipes who can make no use of them. As they have been ordered by the Council and have to be paid for by the Council, that iB by the ratepayers ultimately, even the Dirt-and-Darkness Club would hardly advise that they should be sold or broken up for metal. As fortunate accident, or the benighted and ignorant foresight of the Council last year, has put it within our power to become sweet and clean if we choose; —as we shall assuredly have to pay the largest part of the cost of becoming clean whether we like it or not, would it not be better that we should quietly submit to our fate and accept the disagreeable condition of cleanliness however much against the grain ? As the pipes are here and we have to pay for them, would it not on the whole be more j sensible to let the slops run through i them under tho streets, instead of leaving the wind to blow through them in the City Council yard. The distance from the river to Lichfield street along Colombo Btreet is about forty chains. The whole of the side streets running into Colombo street, as far as there is a dense population, would lake about sixty chains more, or say 100 chains in aIL These could be laid for less than £3 a chain. The cost of draining into one of these main drains would be charged upon the houses using the drainage, so that some £300 is all that is wanted out of the rates to enable the means of efficient drainage to be within the reach of every householder in the more thickly inhabited parts of the city. There are drains imported for much more than the distance we have mentioned. "We believe the quantity now landed comprises upwards of 16,000 feet of piping, of

which 4,000 feet is fifteen and eighteen inch, and 2,300 feet nine inch. There are also 200 traps of an excellent construction for the houses. Here is therefore material to take the liquid drainage from the whole of that part of the city where, from the density of the population, it is dangerous now to allow it to remain. Let us hope that the City Council will manage to get this work done without delay. It has got to be done some time or j other; the sooner the better. These I miserable -squabbles about authority are not going to last for ever. Times j . are improving, and the opposition to; rates will die out; especially as the assessment appears now to be accepted j as tolerably fair and reasonable. There is therefore no reason why we should have our slops soaking into the soil, and poisoning the earth, or should throw them into the streets and let j them bestow their foetid favors on the air from the open side gutters. The immediate use of these drain pipes to carry off the liquid sewage will at j once add to the health of the town to j an extent which it is impossible to calculates Christchurch. stands on a soil particularly healthy in itself, but easy to be made the contrary. The soil is a dry loose sand and gravel. In the state of nature nothing can be healthier, but once saturated with the washings of a large town, it will become a hot-bed of fever and every cognate disease. "We have adopted one most important step in getting ■ rid of cess pools. Let us now take a similar step with the fluid sewage, which is even more noisome and unwholesome. If the system be once commenced it will grow. The part first drained will be that where drainage is most important; but year by year the system can be extended as required, until the whole city is effectually drained. Let the City Gouncil proceed at once to lay the drains down Colombo street. We are sure that it is the general wish of the citizens that it should be done.

Chkistchitbch Vestry.—The vestry held their monthly meeting yesterday evening at the City Council office. Present—The Churchwardens, Messrs. Gordon and Hawkes; Messrs. J. E. March and A. F. N. Blakiston, also the Rev. G. Carpenter and the Yen. Archdeacon Jacobs, who presided. The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The Churchwardens stated that they were unable, from other engagements, to make the necessary divisions for the canvassing of subscriptions, and suggested that the matter should be gone into that evening by the vestry, which was agreed to, and the several divisions were marked out and allotted to the members of the vestry. The vestry is to be summoned for a. special meeting on Tuesday, the 15th instant, at half-past four o'clock, to report on their success. Where is the« Governor?—The "Daily Times," of Monday, says:—We understand that the non-gazetting of the Hon. James Paterson, as Postmaster-General of the colony, is not attributable to the indifference of the honorable gentleman himself, or to any neglect or want of cordiality on the part of Mr. Stafford, but simply to the Northern tour of the Governor. We hear that as soon as Mr. Paterson returned to Wellington, after his re-election, he kept his promise to his constituents by requiring that he should be gazetted as Postmaster ; that Mr. Stafford agreed that this should be done ; that the necessary documents were at once prepared ; and that, when the Lady Bird left Wellington, nothing further was known of them than that they were' — somewhere in search of the Governor. Canterbury is suffering for this Northern tour of his Excellency. One batch of writs for the Provincial Council elections in that province has been signed, but the other has been sent to his Excellency, and has not yet, so far as is known, reached him. Society por Promoting Chbistian. Knowledge.—A meeting of this society will be held this afternoon in the City. Council chambers at four o'clock. All subscribers of £1 Is and upwards are members of the board of management. V Ca-CPtta Sweepstakes. — Calcutta and Derby sweeps on the Grand Steeplechase Handicap will be drawn this evening at Barnard's repository, at eight o'clock.