LINCOLN ROAD DRAIN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12618, 28 September 1901, Page 2

LINCOLN ROAD DRAIN.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l shall be obliged if you vvill .publish- the full text of the letter addressed by me to the Drainage Board, regarding tha Lincoln Road sew6V: ‘•Christ church,’July 6th, 1901.—The Ohaifr, man, Christchurch Drainage .Bohrdv —bit,— In reply .to your letter of 4th inst., re-, ga.rding the Lincoln Road' drain, I beg to state that Ido not consider advisable ; to Cover in the short lengrii of it which, passes through, Hagtey Park for the following reasons About, September last year, before any work had been dope oh the above drain, 1,, waited on the Board airdi • pointed out the hccourity of putting a caacrete invert in thh drain, as it is cdhsitdst-r. ed Wrong for storm water; mixed; with tewiyge, to flow in an earthen channel. The residents wished the drain covered over, and, yvhite approving of this being done, as a convenience to the residents, and to. enable a better footpath tb b© , made, I slated that it was rather, a disadvantage than otherwise ffoih a sanitary point of view. In case my opinion on 'ibis matter should be considered biassed from a n. «x* clhsively; medical point of vidw, I submit the following quotation from Mi’ James Lemon’s, presidential, address to the -section, of engineering at , the Sanitary Institute Congress at Itertsmoaith in 1892: . “I consider you canno® have too many inlet© and outlets to a sewer, and after forty years’ experience I have come to the conclusion that an open server down the centra of a street, with a good fail,, would be Vhe ’best) form of constructionthis, however, ds impracticable.” ' Mr Lemon is a sanitary eh- 1 gineer of very high standing at Homo, and his opinion here stated is quoted with ap? proval' by Dr Gniggen, the president of the-. Society of Medical Officers of Health, -in his presidential address of October,. 1898.. White; therefore, the convenience of the public does not require the portion Of 'the drain inside the .Park to be covered in the same way as the 1 part outside, the .health of the Hospital offers an urgent reason for leaving it open. No mention has been made of the fact that about ten chains Length of this same drain runs perfectly open through the hospital grounds. If the part in .Ragleyl Park, which is only about a chain long, were'covered, - the sewer gas formed irt. the closed portion, on. the Lincoln Road;.would bo discharged .in the-; hospital grounds m front of the. Hyman Marks’ at such a point that every north-wester would blow it towards the hospital. I do, how-... recommend that suitable pipe ventilators bo fixed at intervals, along the Lincoln Road drain. The. detail© Of these are, <Jf course, for the engineer to decide; but I beg to be allowed to object to grid ventilators on the street 'level. This will minimise the discharge of server gas at the'Park' end of the drain. 2. Being anxious to ascertain whither any nuisance had been noticed at,the hospital, which! could, be traced to the above drain, I made enquiries of an many persona aw possibleat- ; the -hospital with the I permission of Dr Crook, i I found no evidence to support the suggestion that the Lincoln Road drain caused tiny trouble there. 3. I have Dr NedwiH’s kind permtesiou to state that he quit© agrees with. UK©' vierva 1 have expressed on this matter; I have the honour to be,- sir, your' obedient ©errant, W. H. SYMEH (The above extract' is copied front ‘Public Health,* the officialjournal of the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health of Great Britain., j” I sent the whole correspondence to Dr Mason, who replied to ipo .under date Sept. 2 :■ ■“ I am quite at one. with yon in regard! to the Lincoln Road drAin.” I .h4\te’submitted to the Hospital Board for their perusal in committee my report cm the draijrage of the ilnospital, Which ’hj* been forwarded to Dr JlcGregor, and which shows that serious defects exist in the hospital drains, more than sufficient to {tocounit for the smells noticed. I desire to dhow the utmost respect to the Hospital Board, and if they ’will 1 give me reasonable assistance, I will not rest until 1 shall have traced every similar cause of complaint to its source, ana showed how to improve it. I have already recomm'E'ntded pipe ventilators to bo fixed' every five chaiiiiis along the Lincoln Redd sewer. If this should not prove sufficient to prevent any smell occurring at the north end of the sewer, it will be a. simple matter to trap the sewer, awd thus effectively prevent the escape of sewer gas at that point. I • should’ recommend I this in preference. to covering ‘the short length: of drain remaining open, which serves a.' mnsfcmseful. purpose in aerating dnd purifying the drain. Sewer gas is much worse than a mere smell, uind tiis .worst forms of sewer gas have no smell at all; It cannot bo formed in. ■ :ui open drain, exposed to air and light,.-Wind the less of it the better near a hospital.-* I uni, etc., W. H. BYMES.