THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1884.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6998, 22 April 1884, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1884.

Wherever sanatory arrangements are defective the return of autumn, the fall of the year, is particularly trying to the public health, and as our means of refuse removal are so unsatisfactory, it is very fortunate that there are not just now more numerous cases of typhoid fever and other sickness produced by such a cause. The "evil odours that hint at malaria and are Nature's warning to be on our guard, arise in and about Auckland from holes and gullies which have become cesspits, sometimes from still uncovered sewers, and finally, from the discharge of the sewerage into the harbour. As a remedy for the latter mischief the plan now on hand will noD. do—to carry the outfall into deep water by • transferring the mouth of a sewer from the beach to the extremity of a'pier. Even if that expedient should' avert the pollution of the;beach, and danger in that way to health, it must needs substitute another danger of a most serious character also — namely danger to our water approaches' by gradual silting up—danger to the navigation of the port, on which- Auckland's future depends, and is therefore much too considerable a matter to trifle with. Our harbour ought not to be made the subject of such experiments, even if the harmful result were doubtful, which it is not. The experiment has been pronounced unsafe on good scientific authority, and it does not need special science to see it. It is manifest to plain common sense. The Waitemata is a winding haven," and therefore—as every sailor .knows, and as any landsman can easily comprehend—affords peculiar facilities for the creation of banks and bars. But why should this idea about the outfall be countenanced by the local authorities? Because there has been a great mistake, now imperatively requiring to be dealt with. The outfall at the beach is dangerous to health, and so from one of the sewers it is to be carried to deep water. Of course the fundamental blunder was to make the harbour the cesspool of the city—permitting the sewers to discharge there at all. And when a thing is radically wrong there is no remedy except a radical change. For even if the experiment in hand should do no harm to the harbour after all, how can that meet the evil complained of-? It is only carrying the outfall of one sewer to the end of one of the piers. How are the other drains, present and in prospect, to be provided for 1 Are .they each and all to be run to the end of piers to get deep water for the noxious outfall 1 Bad, we should say, for the deep water! The winding channel would soon have its interruptions. Then, even if all the sewers could be- carried to the extremity of piers, neither would the long-drawn-out beach with its capes and angles escape pollution,, from'the wash of the waters treated in this fashion. And we must remember that in another dozen years behind this harbour frontage Auckland is certain to be double'the present size and have double its present population, and suburbs which are now straggling will then be filled up witH houses. Does anybody suppose that this system of casting the refuse of the city into the bay can go on much longer. On the score of the public health it will not be suffered, and for the safety of our port, we hope it will not be tolerated either. Something is sometimes said of more powerful dredges, but they would want to increase indefinitely in power, inasmuch as the silting up would be always becoming more powerful. Already alongside the piers the water has greatly shallowed. It is evident that the present mode of disposing of the refuse of the town will have to cease, j and the sooner the better from. every point of view. There are various new systems in operation in Europe, and some are said to work well, and with public approval. We obtained and published information respecting several, pointing out that iu order to make a choice, it would be easy to authenticate the information, and get all particulars by the authorities here communicating with those of the cities which have introduced the new arrangements. Cities and towns in the Old World seek and obtain such information, from each other,. very necessary in a matter of this great consequence, and it is always readily and courteously afforded. It was preferred, however, to ignore the innovations of .the age, and carry out here the ■ old fashioned.system by. which the adjoining waters of river, and bay were made the receptacle of the filth of a city. The worst of such a mistake is that the expense- of, laying, the thing down causes difficulty ih'abandoning or even reforming it. We know and experience the defects of the old method. It is not equally easy to decide between the comparative merits

of the new ones—in what degree they , approach or are remote from perfection. Let us hope that the impending Hygienic Exhibition and;. Conference in. London may afford is full light on the subject. Indeed, we do not think there is" any other question coming under the" objects of the Conference which , equally demands its attention arid illustrates with this problem of town-cleansing. The refuse ought to be inoffensively . removed and made economical use of.-, and it is a disgrace to our civilisation that what is capable of a most valuable service is wasted, and, still worse, made dangerous ■ to health by pollution of the water and atmosphere. In nothing is modern scientific- progress more remarkable than in chemical discovery and mechanical contrivance; but it looks as if there must be little original genius behind it, when there has been so much "delay in enabling the towns to sustain the fertility of the country, by the convenient, innocuous, and remunerative distribution of what they now find only a nuisance, and throw away. There are now several new systems at work, both on the Continent and in. England, designed to render this service. With how much or how little .success they respectively perform it is : . just -what we want to know exactly.- "Will the Hygienic-Exhibi-tion and Conference enlighten us ? If it is not to be an idle show—which exhibitions and. conferences sometimes are —it will" not fail, to .be practical and useful about this most pressing of sanatory requirements. Plans and illustrations of the various new methods we speak of ought to be collected and exhibited, and a series of-the lectures and- discussions, expository and suggestive, should be devoted to the subject.