THE CITY'S RUBBISH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 82, 31 December 1907, Page 6

THE CITY'S RUBBISH.

WHERE IS IT GOING ? RECLAMATION, SAND HILLS, AND JAM-TIN GULLY. .Thai the City of Wellington is building a now destructor, that the one now in use has long been inadequate to its important work, that there is a place, called Jam-Tin Gully—all this is a more than twice-told talc. "But' in tho hot days when all that sniolls at other times smolls worso than over, and on the windy days, when the wicked northerly 'picks up tho. miscellaneous jetsam of the streets, and throws it straight into tho oyes, the citizens ask each other, "What is tho'Corporation doing with tho rubbish that tho destructor cannot burn?"The, Destructor at Work. Armed with on open sesarao in tho shape of a bit of pasteboard bearing a few words in tho hand-writing of His Worship tho Alayor,'a representative of this journal won't down to Clyde Quay yesterday to see the old destructor gobbling up its endless unsavoury meal, and tho now one gradually coming into oxistenco beside it. It was unfortunate for tho investigator that the City Engineer, upon whoso courtesy he had been reiving for information, was absent on holiday leave. Whatever little holiday tho destructor mav havo had. was over, and the reporter therefore' had the doubtful pleasure of seeing the' monster fed. Ho looked in vain for any vast' accumulation .of refuse; There'were' - two'or threo cartloads of paper, straw,' banana ■ skins, orange peel, decayed fruit, scraps of Christmas faro,"'straw,' bottles, jam tins, periodicals, bread-crusts, and all that, gqes to niako the huge mass of stuff that people throw away. '(And- the air was sour with tho;'smell of' it.; '. Two men' were shovelling and ramming it'down through tho openings into the'four'cells where the fires burn iday arid night,' year in year out. ~ It looked as'if they would clear the. stage in an hour, or two, unless' more dust-carts came in. The Inoombustibles. Down below, (for destructors arc-fed from the top and burn; with a downward draught) a lifting of tho great iron flaps and, a peep into the. cells''"snowed tho. fire—no demon hero, but' a purifying angel—doing its fierce, but wholesome work. In the ashes and clinkers.- as they fell out.through the bars, tho tin cans appeared, blackened and un-, soldered,, hut otherwise sound, bits of china, distorted glass, and othtyr incombustiblcs were recognisable, but all- was inodorous* and harmless; Thes ashes are tipped' into the Harbour Board's reclamations to make more land for Wellington. Doubtless great efforts have to bo made sometimes to put tho stuff' through the destructor and'prevent accumulation. Doubtless quantities of books and papers which business people or public officials have wanted burnt have had to he held back for want of such-facilities as the now destructor will afford. Residents'a quarter of a mile from the destructor have found half-burnt rubbish, presumably from the destructor, blowing into their yards, but the reporter could not see where it might have come from. Jam Tin Cully. Tho smaller jam tins,'meat .tins, tobacco tin's,■,and. the like co through. the fire, with the combustible stuff, but kcros,e'uc..tins, bits of roofing-iron, oil drums, and,other inoombustibles of the'larger sort'-arii thrown, asideThere they stand, piled in a huge mounu.. From time to time a consignment is carted out Newtown way, to he deposited in the charming suburban resort known as Jam-Tin Gully. _ . A.certain amount of.the rubbish, which the carts collect never gets near the destructor. This is tho refuse of Island Bay and tho distant parts of ■ Kilbirnie. It is buried out yonder among the sandhills. All honour to tho old destructor! For'lo. years and more the present destructor has done its part to keep the city clean and sweet. It has never had to bo shut down for repairs—which is probably a record. It was, in its day, the pride of' the city and the most up-to-date destructor in Australasia. It still consumes its 3000 tons of rubbish every month, and turns out in the same period its 480 cubic yards of ashes. It will soon bo superseded, and if the new destructor meets the requirements of 1903 as well as the old one met those of 1888, it will do. In the meantime, the city authorities are evidently doing their best to dispose of the rubbish with proper regard to the public health. . . -