SEWAGE OF TOWNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1092, 29 April 1863, Page 2

SEWAGE OF TOWNS.

The report of the Select Committee on the Sewage of the Towns, just issued, will mark a step in advance towards the practical solution of a most important social problem. It has long been known, of course, that sewage matter constituted a very valuable manure, but opinions differed much as to the best mode of application, with a view to economy and the highest possible utilization. Nor is it quite clear that interests adverse to this end have not been active in perverting opinion upon the subject. But it cannot now be denied that to make the application of town sewage profitable to the farmer, and of course a benefit to the ratepayers, it must under ordinary conditions be made in their dressings over a large area. The experiments carried on at Edinburgh and Rugby were conducted on the opposite principle, and, although extraordinary crops were obtained, still the cost of heavy dressings of sewage over a narrow area was found to exceed the profit of the extra crop. With that limitation or condition, the committee concludes that the fertilizing matters contained in town sewage, when not diluted in an extraordinary degree with the drainage and rainfall, are of great agricultural value; that, where the relations between the town and the surrounding agricultural lands are not unusually adverse to the application of the sewage, it can be applied with profit to the town and to the owners of the lands; but that municipal authorities have not at present sufficient powers to deal with the subject.

From the valuable analysis of the evidence which accompanies the report, we find it proved that sewage possesses advantages which solid manure does not. The former loses by evaporation, which is not so with the latter. Years may pass before entire productive qualities of solid manure are all absorbed, and for that time the farmer will lose the interest of the capital sunk; but a couple of days brings every particle of the sewage dressing into operation on the crop. Even the sewage water itself, deprived of the solid matters, is of great value for agricultural purposes. Although it soon operates, its good effects are visible for years. The most valuable portion of the evidence, however, is that which proves the superiority of light over heavy dressings. Mr. Lawes's evidence establishes the fact that the earth possesses the power to absorb from the sewage all the manure which it contains provided the sewage be not applied in too large a quantity. Mr. P. W. S. Miles took the sewage produced by thirty persons and applied it over fourteen acres of ground, arable and pasture. The value of the land was doubled simply by the application of this manure—its annual value was increased £3 an acre ; and, at any rate, there was a clear profit of over £1 per annum for the sewage of each person. Contrasting this with the Rugby experiment conducted by Mr. Lawes, with of sewage, from 3,000 to 9,000 tons per acre yearly, the result will be found clearly in favour of the light dressings, for Mr. Lawes could only recover back in produce between Is and 2s per head per annum for the sewage of each person applied. The truth is, that under the system of heavy dressings a very large portion of the sewage is totally wasted, flowing over or off the land without sinking into it. Evidence to this effect abounds in the report, and the committee is justified in holding the fact to be fully established that sewage is.applicable to all crops, and that if commercial results are sought for, it must be applied in small dressings. We have insisted upon this point, because it was really the important one of the inquiry. The heavy-dressing experiments seem to have been made for a purpose very adverse to that solution of the question which would be for the public interest. It was thought that if the application of town sewage to agricultural purposes could be shown to be unprofitable, the sewage would continue to be got rid of as hitherto, poisoning our streams and our people, to do no good to anyone. So the experiments were made on a plan which must fail. What the interest is which is so hostile to the utilization of sewage is very apparent. The Select Committee, at any rate, does not conceal it. If the sewage of our cities and towns, says the committee, were utilised to the best advantage over suitable areas, it is evident that little or no imported or manufactured manures would be used. This would greatly limit the area now supplied by such manures, and would, therefore, reduce the profits of all those engaged in the importation, manufacture, or sale of manures. That this is a very material influence may be judged by the fact that one manufacturer of artificial manure is said to derive an income of £40,000 a year from the profits of his business.

Now, the ratepayers of the metropolis have a strong interest in knowing what the Metropolitan Board of Works intends to do in this matter; and they have a right to insist that the evidence already acquired should be the guide of the Board in dealing with it. Only one-half the business is done by intercepting and carrying away the sewage from the Thames : it still remains to utilise it in the manner most profitable for the ratepayers. And here we may observe that after all the expense gone to, and the great engineering works undertaken to prevent the Thames from being polluted, it is designed to pour the whole drainage of the western district of the metropolis, about one eleventh of the whole, into the river somewhere in the neighborhood of Cremorne or Battersea. The medical officers of the metropolis have protested against this scheme, and no wonder. The surprising circumstance is, that a plan so utterly at variance with the principle of the Main Drainage Act and with all the conclusions on the subject arrived at of late years, should ever have entered the head of anybody. It really is so monstrous as to seem incredible. It cannot have been suggested by engineering difficulties; but even if these did exist to prevent the sewage of the western district from being conveyed away with the rest, there can be no difficulty in making it available for application to the lands skirting that district, on the plan expounded by Mr. Thomas Ellis,* to the advantage both of the ratepayers and of the farmers. Whatever may be ultimately decided on this point, one thing is certain ; that, deodorized or not, the sewage must not and shall not be allowed to go into the Thames. On the other question, the Metropolitan Board, are certainly now in a position to decide what is to be done with the sewage when they shall have got it conveyed away from the metropolis. Will the} allow it to go waste in the lower part of the river, thus in effect pouring hundreds of thousands of pounds—the property of the ratepayers —annually into the sea; or will they take the best means of commercially disposing of it in accordance with the conclusions of the Select Committee, for the benefit of the ratepayers and reduction of the rates ? Or, to put it more compendiously, will they consult the interests of their constituents,

or the interests of the artificial manure manufacturers? Wo can tell the Metropolitan Hoard of Works that it stands in a rather equivocal position with respect to public confidence, and that therefore its proceedings upon the question will bo vr-ry narrowly watched. There must be no favoritism, ami no jobbing, but that plan which is demon strably the best for the public will have to be adopted. The sewage is incontestably worth money, and it be sold to the highest bidder, not given away or lo*t in ridiculous experiments.—Mommy /W. * At the usual fortnightly meeting of the Hornby Highway Board, held on Monday se'nnight, at the board-room, at Highgate, the report just issued bv the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Sewage of towns was brought under consideration by the chairman, and after careful deliberation the following resolutions were adopted, and ordered to be sent by the clerk to every vestry and district board of works in the metropolis:— " That the utilisation of sewage is a subject demanding the serious consideration of ratepayer throughout the kingdom, as a means of diminishing local taxation, and at the same time increasing thp food of the people. " That sewage may be utilised with profit has been abundantly and convincingly proved by the evidence recently taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons. " That as the application of sewage in small quantities over large areas, as proposed by Mr. Ellis to the Metropolitan Board of Works, will obviate the necessity for the use of artificial manures, it i 5 manifest that great opposition to any such utilisation will be sure to arise from all who are concerned in their manufacture. " That inasmuch as application is now being made to Parliament by means of a bill called 'The Dewie (Essex) Reclamation Company,' in which an attem ! ! is made to obtain the concession of the sewage of tinmetropolis without the intervention of the ratepayers or their representatives, for the purpose of applying it all over a small area—by which plan according to the evidence taken by the above-named committee, it is impossible the ratepayers can ever receive any return for it—it is absolutely necessary, in order to obtain such utilisation of sewage as will be profitable to them, that immediate and united action should be entered upon by all who are desirous to diminish taxation and increase the food of the people. " That this board, fully impressed with the importance of sewage utilisation, as proposed by Mr. Ellis, hereby endorses the proposition, entitled ' Twenty-six facts for the Nation,' and which are to be found at the commencement of a pamphlet just published as a ' Letter to F. Doulton, Esq., M.P., the Chairman of the Main Drainage Committee of the Metropolitan Board of Works.' " That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to every vestry and district board of works in the metropolis, soliciting their immediate attention to this most important subject. (Signed) " Jno. Runtz, Chairman."