THE DRAINAGE SCHEME.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 4980, 3 February 1877, Page 3

THE DRAINAGE SCHEME.

TO THE EDITOE OP THE LYTTELTON TIMES. Sib, —The Drainage Board having adopted Mr Oarruthere’ report, are the ratepayers to be consulted in the matter ? The proposal to carry the night soil to the Estuary is, 1 think, very objectionable; at low tide it will lie upon the mud flats, and with a north-easterly wind it will have a serious effect upon the health of Obristchurch, and the intervening localities, and with a nor’-wester it will make Sumner unbearable. 1 hope the Board will re consider this. The proposition to carry it out to sea by means of an outfall sewer three miles long, will be a difficulty attended with an enormous expense.

With all due deference to the scientific skill of the advisers of the Board, I must be permitted to say that 1 still adhere to the suggestion I made in my Sanitary Essay, which you kindly published in your issue of Jan. 27, 1875. It was to the effect that a large reserve should be made on the FortyMile Beach for burying the night soil in long trenches, and the work done systematically ;. between each row trees should be planted, so that, in the course of time, it would become a valuable plantation. At present it is only a sandy desert, and useless, except to be reclaimed by the means suggested; and a reserve for a cemetery could be made at the same time in either ease for the use of Christchurch and the surrounding districts. They could be approached by a rail or tramway branching off from the Northern line, buch reserves would last for almost any number of years, and give plenty of time for science to solve the present difficult problem—the best way of disposing of the night soil. Waste water from houses must, at all events for the present, run into the side channels flushed with artesian overflow, and leading to the outfall drain. Where this is inoenvenient the channels should lead to catch-water drains, which should be constructed on eaoh side of the rivers, so as to avoid the pollution thereof, and such drains should be carried down to a distance that will clear such parts of the rivers where their especial purity is necessary. The month of the outfall has never been completed in the manner recommended by Mr Bray to ensure the liquid running into the channel of the estuary. This work ought to be done at once, as complaints are made of bad smells at low tide. It is only what is usual on all mud flats at low water, and has nothing to do with the present kind of water from the outfall. A walk by the side of the drain will prove that its smell is quite differentfrom that complained of. I am, &c., E. B. BISHOP.

TO THE EDITOB OF THE LYTTELTON TIMES

dIE, —It would not become me, a plain worker among the ten or twelve thousand lives whose health and interests are to be altered for better or worse by Mr Carruthers’ scheme of drainage—l say it would ill suit my position and calling to pick any holes in the sayings and doings of the worthy gentlemen on our Drainage Board. Still, as a cat may look at a king, so may I venture, in my humble way, to act the part of a critic on this special occasion. In the first place, I think the Drainage Board are not fully alive to their position as representatives of we who pay the rates they are to spend. The Town Council fully understands that we, the money earners of the place, keep a sharp look out on their way of doing business, and have thereby acquired the habit of consulting our wishes; but this young Board has begun its work in a manner completely opposed to tho independence of we workers, and out of gear with that system of local self-government so freely lauded at the present day in this now Colony. Few things of mortal man can bo done without money, and tho more honestly you work tho more money you seem to need, and the less way it goes, so I suppose this scheme will require money by the thousands, and we and our children must toil with over thicken-ing-obstructions, suoh os rates, school fees, taxes, to., like men wading through supplejacks. This and other schemes mean, of a

certainty, now burden*, and it would have been but a docent recognition of the heavy swag wo are about to put on our backs if the worthy gentlemen of the Board had gone about their work like the Town Council, and remembered that they had masters in us who have to pay the cost of their scheme. I am not going back to the advisability of the appointment of Mr Oarruthers, at least not much, When men volunteer to go to the North Pole, or on any momentous project, they are commonly swayed by the fitness of the man who is to lead. Uncertainty hangs about the future of all big human projects, however providently devised; but if doubt hangs about the fitness of the leader, then the chances of commanding success are very much weakened. We are going into a project bigger by far than what the town has yet taken in hand. It is large in the money point of view, but it seems to prudent men, big in the aspect of health after we have spent our borrowed money and secured the burden of the perpetual interest. So it is, I come seriously to ask, who is Mr Oarruthers P and what is his fitness to take the post of leader in this project so full of uncertainty as to good in the future P The gentlemen on the Board will hold me blameless if I say that their neglect on one matter belonging strikingly to this affair does not command respect for them from my mind. It is an indisputable foot known in the different shops that a large sum of money, some say a thousand, others say fifteen hundred, and men speak of even two thousand pounds, which was set aside by the Provincial Council as a prize for the best scheme for draining the town and neighbouring districts. This largo sum was at the command of the Board, without expense to the men, their masters, and through it they might have had sundry differing plane, and from them they might have got enlightenment, without, as I said, any expense to the men, their masters. That they threw aside this opportunity does not give me confidence in their prudence. It is not because they were stupid to refuse a gift which could do no harm, but the action seemed to tell me that gentlemen were on the Board with settled convictions, and who did not wish their own plans disturbed in their own minds, or of having the minds of men opened up by differing schemes. It was a foolish action at best, this rejection of the prize money. Well, I have asked who is Mr Oarruthers, and what is his fitness as a leader to carry us into a grand future. _ The Board had the power of appointing an engineer, and they perhaps naturally turned to the head of the Government Engineers, and that is Mr Oarruthers. It cannot but be in human nature that the compliment to the ability of the Engineer must be taken down a bit by the manner of the giving it him. But in whatever way ho was appointed, ho is our leader now, and it would be satisfactory if we could hear what other schemes of drainage Mr Carruthers has carried out, devised, or seen. Bound about me men say ho has never had anything to do with drainage, and that he is only putting book work on drains into shape, through his knowledge of levels as an Engineer. This may be shown untrue by any one at the next meeting of the Board, and a satisfactory answer would carry the scheme forward; but it it turns out to be the blind leading the blind, then the progress of the scheme will be doubtful. Should it be the latter, then it seems to me the action of the Board in carrying Mr Wright’s resolution “ that the scheme be adopted ” opens up a cause of, if not reprimand, at any rate distrust. Putting on one side the fact that the same member who proposed Mr Oarruthers as Engineer now at the very beginning carries the adoption of his project, I am of opinion before the Board adopted plans, undertaking liabilities for the men, their masters, to so heavy a sum, they ought to have displayed the plans in some public place, and given us time to digest the scheme. Not only that, but as the fad in politics seems to be public voting for loans and schemes, there ought to be the plebiscite taken in this, to ns, very big project; in short, men should have the chance of voting project or no project, and not be hurried blindfold against their wills and convictions into a scheme which may be obnoxious to them. This Board evidently means to take us by the high rough hand, as I have seen a mother in a hurry scrub the face of a lout. Taken all through, I do not think the Board has acted as prudent men, or in a way men ought to act, who are empowered to spend the hard-earned money of men like me and dozens round me. I am, &c., P. I. E. TO THE EDITOE OP THE LYTTELTON TIMES. Sie, —Can you inform me if the City Contractor for the removal of rubbish is responsible to anyone in case of non-fulfilment of his duties P I am under the impression that he simply pleases himself. I am sure, Mr Editor, you would not like, after a restless night, spent in getting up perhaps three or four times to shy stones at your neighbours’ cats who amuse themselves under your bedroom windows with usual musical accompaniments, and filling up intervals in your time trying to find out what the children are crying for ; you would not like, I say, Mr Editor, to turn out at 5 a.m. for the purpose of digging holes in your garden to bury rubbish in. I don’t mind these trifles much, but for the sake of people who do not like them, it would be well to have it publicly stated whether the contractor is responsible or not. I am, &c., AN UNWILLING RUBBISH GRAVEDIGGER. Feb. 2,1877.