MARMADUKE DIXON, M.P.O.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 4986, 10 February 1877, Page 3

MARMADUKE DIXON, M.P.O.

TO TUB KDITOK OP TUB LYTTKI/I'ON TIMRB. (3m _I have road with interest both the letter.’ written by Dr Turnbull which have appeared in your column., end I must confess to being considerably eurprued by the line which he follow, in that ot Feb. 0. published in your issue of to-day. Beferwng _ to the Drainage Board,ho says, “ without dram, they could not exist, for it is the .ole object for which they were created a Board"; not only the scheme, but the Drainage Bill and ne Board are mistakes. whole question would beplaoedm a much more satisfactory position if the Drainage Board were dissolved, the Bill repealed, and the Board of Health made to assume the functions

of both." It must surely strike Dr Turnbnll that ho is rather late in tho day in tendering such advice; two Bills have passed through Parliament conferring and enlarging tho powers of the Board, and yet tho Board ha* no sooner commenced to discharge, what the Dootor admits to be, their proper functions, than he proposes that the two Aot* of Parliashould bo repealed, and a now plan adopted more in accordance with hi* own peculiar notions. 1 1 have usod tho term ” their proper functions,’’ and, as I understand tho action of tho Board, these word* are strictly correct. From their proceedings and the explanations offered by different members of tho same, I gather that while thoy have accepted at once Mr Oarruthers’ plan of drains, or, in other words, his advice as an engineer how the sewage of the Christchurch district should be brought to one point, I do not gather that they have as yet committed themselves, either to tho turning of the estuary into a gigantic cesspool, or to the admission of nightsoil into the sewers I They could not, it appear* to me, have properly done loss than thoy havo done, and they appear to me to have made use of their engineer for the solution of a question, as to whioh be would certainly bo their best adviser. The most difficult part of their work is still before them, and I do not think the publio will admit that Mr Oarruthers is of necessity their best adviser in reforenoo thereto. I am, &0., Fob. 9. CITIZEN.