SMOKE NUISANCE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 238, 22 June 1926, Page 8

SMOKE NUISANCE

AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CITY STILL TROUBLE IN THE SUBURBS DISAPPEARING CHIMNEYS At the last meeting of the Wellington City Council a good deal of the early part of the evening was occupied by a discussion on various phases of the smoke nuisance in-Wellington. The question was introduced by a large and very earnest deputation from Vogeltown who complained bitterly of the hardships they had to undergo through the rubbish fires of the Hutchison Road tip, which night and day send forth their foetid fumes into the air, pointing the neighbourhood, at times to an almost unbearable degree. This grievance was a very real one with these people, who have only the one means of access to their homes on the hills, and that is by way of Hutchison Road. When it was stated that the flying debris from the tip has set the hflls on fire on more than one occasion, destroyed a lady’s dress last summer (througha piece of flying matter alighting on her frock as she walked up the hill), the council began to realise that the burning of inflammable rubbish at an open tip was not in accordance vvith the best practice, and promised a full and careful inquiry. Smoking Chimneys. The other case was of a different character. It was the case of a manufacturer who wished to burn his own sawdust and shavings, and proposed to build a 40ft. chimney stack. In this case the Mayor said that there must be some reason in these matters, and they could not object to a man burning clean refuse in the way of trade. Other councillors said that the many complaints received by the council about smoke trouble only made it the more imperative to create an industrial area, and to refuse building permits for factories in purely residential localities, but that would need legislation. At present they had not the power to prevent anyone erecting a factory where he chose, so long as lie complied with the building by-law. The Mayor stated that the city solicitor, in reporting upon this case, said that those people who were suffering or were likely to suffer from the erection of such a chimney stack had a clearer legal course than the council. The Longest Sufferers. Perhaps the longest suffering, people in Wellington are those who live immediately to windward of the Clyde Quay destructor, and who are subject to showers of burnt or half-burnt paper almost daily. All round Majoribanks Street, Lipman and Levy Streets, Hawker and Brougham Streets the mention of the destructor .is anathema to the housewife. These streets lie directly in the route of the north-westerly breeze from the destructor, and on certain days, when the combustion is not perhaps so good as on others, they can indicate the presence of burnt refuse which has been shot up the tall stack and has been carried along by the wind until it fell to earth. The Destructor’s Failings, The destructor is one of the -last of the big causes of the smoke nuisance left in the centre of the city. The last two years has. seen a considerable improvement in this regard through the cessation from business of several of the big smoke stacks that used to pollute the air daily. During those two years the stacks of the two powerhouses in Jervois Quay and Harris Street have, practically, gone out. of business. There is still a little .firing done during the peak-load hours in the case of the Harris Street power-house, but the amount of smoke thrown out bv that stack is now negligible. Cartloads of soot and grit from that stack have been removed from the roof of the Town Hall. One of the most offensive stacks was the one connected with Robertson’.s foundry on Old Customhouse Street, which had been closed down last year. This stack used to throw dense volumes of coal smoke into Manners and Dixon Streets, and tradesmen have often complained of the damage it did to their goods. Another offensive stack was that of Stewart’s sawmill, which has also been done awav with. The smoke from this iron stack used to be blown straight against the facade of His Majesty’s Theatre, and inside the theatre tiny little V-shaped smudges of smoke would appear inside every cranny around about the windows and doors. This was so obviously caused by the smoke stack across the road that the management would do nothing in the way of redecoration until the stack was done away with. As soon as the mill ceased to operate as a mill the work-of painting the theatre was put in hand. The Hutt Cuts In. Although the matter of allocating certain space within the bounds of the city as an industrial area has been discussed on many occasions there has never been any approach to the definite, though the chances offered have been many. Miramar has become' more or less of an industrial area of its own volition. Possibly the matter has been to some extent taken out of Wellington’s hands, as most manufacturers of any pretension desire railway connection, and that Wellington City cannot conveniently provide, so it becomes almost natural for the manufacturers of to-dav and those of the future to go to the Hutt Valley, where there has been an area prescribed for industries, that is to be given railway connection within a vear or so. So probably Wellington will gain in the long run from the long-sightedness of the Mayor and Council of the Hutt Borough in relieving them of industrial responsibilities that cannot without great difficulty be managed within Wellington’s own boundaries.