Sanitation.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 871, 9 November 1888, Page 28

Sanitation.

Admittedly Wellington has at the present time the best and most capable City Conncil that this municipality has possessed for years past. To say so implies no disparagement of the last Council. That contained some excellent members, two or three of the most useful of whom are unfortunately absent from the new Council. That is no doubt a public loss, but it is to a large extent compensated by the return of several Councillors who, although fresh to civic politics, are certain to prove themselves most valuable representatives. Further, several of the best ex-councillors have come back again, and— : most beneficial reform of all —the worst have not come back. So on the whole the present Council is as good a onß as the city could possibly expect, or is at all likely to get. Thfts state of things is particularly satisfactory to the citizens, inasmuch as so exceptionally able a Council may fairly be expected to set on foot various reforms, most ot which have long been greatly needed, and some of which are growing daily more and more urgent. We shall indicate these successively, taking one at a time. Among the most imperative are those which group themselves generally under the heading “ sanitary reform.” We do not know whether those who hold that the Inspector of Nuisances has not more work than he can do efficiently, really believe thatthe sanitary condition of the city is satisfactory. If they do, we can only say that we are unable either to agree with them or to understand the course of reasoning which has led to such a conclusion. It appears to us that the Registrar-General's monthly vital statistics effectually dispel any such comfortable illusion. Why is the death-rate of this city so much higher month after month and year after year than that of any other New Zealand city? That it is so is a hard and unpalatable fact, which is blazoned forth to the whole Colony every month through the medium of the Gazette. Why should Wellington have so much larger a death-rate than Auckland, Christchurch, or Dunedin ? It cannot be said that the situation is less healthy, or the climate less salubrious. Other things being equal, there is nothing in the site or climate of Wellington to account for a higher death-rate than obtains in other New Zealand cities. But it iB idle and impossible to shut our eyes to the fact that every month the Ttegistrar-Genera) announces to the world at large that the number of deaths in every thousand of the population is appreciably greater here than in any other city of the Colony, Why is this ? There must be some special reason. The site of Christchurch, for instance, should, one would think, being on a dead flat, be more unhealthy than that of Wellington. Dunedin and Auckland are by no means more favourably situated than this city. Again, Wellington has neither the summer heat of Auckland and Christchurch nor the winter cold of Christchurch and Dunedin. The Wellington climate is, in fact, singularly equable in temperature, and loth of the prevailing

winda are genuine sea-breezes. Clearly, then, we cannot explain the excess in the local death-rato by attri buting it to what we may term “ natural causes.” Its only feasible explanation seems to be that the cause is a purely artificial and remediable one, and that while protean in its variety of shape, it is in plain terms simply defective sanitation. To use what Mr W. S. Gilbert calls “ a respectful perversion ’’ of a well-known hymn, we may say that Wellington is a place

Where Nature's works are pleasing, And only man’s are vile. If Wellington is becoming unhealthy, it is -because we, its citizens, have been steadily making it so through our persistent disregard year by year of the precautions which modern science prescribes as essential to urban salubrity. .With no complete system of drainage, with an overcrowded cemetery in the midst of the population, with several very bad “ rookeries ” already existent, and an increasing tendency to their multiplication ; with numerous insanitary practices carried on unchecked, with the sewage of 30,000 persons all allowed to flow into a landlocked harbour, having a small rise of tide and a consequently sluggish current to carry it away from the foreshore ; with no efficient plan of street-cleansing so as to get rid of a class of reluse which all the highest sanitary authorities agree iu pronouncing one of the most deleterious of all nuisances—with these and other offences against sound sanitary rules in constant perpetration, is it wonderful that we have to pay the penalty which the laws of health prescribe and inflict for their infraction ? We shall deal with these matters in fuller detail another day, but we have at leastshownthat the new Council has an abundance of material in which to exercise its energy and unquestionable capacity. We give full credit to past councils for what they have done. This city has now the enormous advantage of a splendid water supply, but for which it is quite certain that we should figure in the RegistrarGeneral’s returns much more unfavourably than we do. That is one great thing accomplished. Another is the introduction of the Destructor, by which a fertile source of danger to health will be minimised. But far more remains yet to be done, and we must look to the new Council to do it.

Following up the subject—the improvement required in the sanitary condition of Wellington—we have something to say with regard to the manner in which a considerable portion of this city has been built, and is being built, in relation to sanitary considerations. We have remarked before on the existence already of several very bad “ rookerieß ” in our midst, and on the perceptible tendency of their multiplication. This is a, matter to which the early attention of the City Council will have to be directed. Even at this early stage of the city’s history; certain portionsof itsareaarepopulated far more densely than is either desirable or safe. In fact, there are several “ slums ” of a very pronounced description, and this ought not to be in such a young city. But the evil was bound to come, and is bound to increase in the absence of adequate restrictive provisions. It is quite natural that the owners of building sites should be anxious to make the most of them. There are some localities in which houses of the larger and more expensive order would not readily find tenants because those neighbourhoods are not popular among the class of people that alone would be likely to take such houses. In those localities speculators usually crowd together residences of a humbler type, trusting to make up for the smaller rental per house by the large number of houses and tenants. Notoriously in some instances these houses are constructed on wholly insanitary principles. They are run up as “ cheaply and nastily” as possible. The rooms are small and low. Ventilation is conspicuous by its absence. So are various conveniences which ought, now-a-days, to form a compulsory part of every house’s equipment for human habitation, especially a continuous water supply and a bath. Such conveniences as are provided are often defective in vital points, so as to constitute a grave peril to the inmates of the houses. The garden, or back yard space, is too small for clothes’ drying to be practicable, excepting in limited instalments. The receptacles' for refuse, if any exist, are so inadequate rj<‘ <1 designed, as to involve ri«*k 'oh ■ a It' hi. A promiscuous mingling < i Mixes is said to be a common and .objectionable

feature in some of these over-crowded shanties, and immorality is consequently fostered. Sanitary laws, cleanliness and decency are, in short, set at defiance.

But it is not only in the inferior class of houses that serious shortcomings are to be discovered. Many houses of the better class are glaringly and even perilously defective, although, as a rule, there is not so reckless and undisguised a disregard of all considerations, save that of running up the cheapest building for which rent can be obtained, as there is in the poorer class of residences. There is at least an attempt to keep up appearances. But some very nice-looking houses are veritable “ whited sepulchres.” Too often wo find bathrooms absent, ventilation deficient, sanitary conveniences so defective as to be dangerous ; and houses packed much too closely together, or at all events with too little ground adjacent. Now and then the enterprising builder or speculator, who ignores the possibility of his tenants requiring any garden or yard beyond an enclosure so small as to render the swinging of a eat therein an act of gross cruelty, if not of impossibility, receives a wholesome lesson as to the unwisdom of bis policy. We know of cases in which houses, otherwise entirely desirable, remain unlet, or let with great difficulty at lower rents, because they have no garden or practicable yard, and this, in spite of the usually large demand for house-room in Wellington. Also there are cases of houses in all other respects correctly described by the agents as “ eligible family residences,” which are deservedly rejected because they are without bathrooms. But it is equally true, unluckily, that many houses are let and occupied which ought on their merits, or rather demerits, to be vacant. The scarcity in Wellington of satisfactory residences has long been a subject of complaint, and in spite of the large amount of building that has gone on of late the grievance is by no means obsolete. This has longbeen, and still is, a marked drawback to the city of Wellington as a place of residence, and it is a little strange that the owners of house property have not made more entensive and systematic efforts to supply so obvious a demand. An improvement in this respect would be beneficial to the city in many ways. Its health and trade would both gain by such a reform. We are quite aware that in cases of the latter class authoritative interference is not atall.eaßy, At the same time it is not impracticable. The City Council already has passed by-laws rendering compulsory the adoption of certain sanitary appliances and enabling some nuisances to be suppressed. We believe the Council might fairly go a step further, and require additional conveniences to be provided, such-as the invariable laying on of water, and even the inclusion of a bathroom, however small, in the plan of every new bouse. In the case of the inferior class of houses interference is urgently required, and if the municipal by-laws as they now stand do not give sufficient power to the local authorities, then they should be amended as may be found necessary. The oft-heard parrot-cry about “the liberty of the subject’’may of course be raised in thiß connection, but the public good is the first consideration. If experience proves that some curtailment of individual liberty of action is essential to the good of the majority, this must be submitted to. As it is, we do not allow people to do a number of things (which they would do if not so checked) because these would be injurious or objectionable to their neighbours. It is only acting on the same principle to prevent their erecting (or, at any rate, letting) houses which are insanitary, or would be otherwise perilous to the inmates. And if it should turn out that the law as it now stands does not empower local authorities to make these needful regulations, then measures should be initiated in good time to get the requisite [amendments in the law made next session. That there is “something rotten in the state” of Wellington the Registrar General’s monthly vital statistics too plainly and unpleasantly show. That the defects to which we have called attention are among the causes, direct or there can be little doubt, and these can and should be removed. That there are other causes is no less certain, but tbe consideration of these we must leave for another day.

—“— , Resuming our consideration ' f the Banitary reforms needed to improve the salubrity of this city, wo now come

to a question of large and serious import—'the ultimate disposal of the city sewage. We have consistently protested against the simple but barbarous and objectionable and uncleanly and insanitary practice now pursued, and apparently intended to be continued—that of pouring the sewage of 30,000 persons into a landlocked and, comparatively-speaking, tideless harbour, thus gradually converting it into a huge cesspool. This, as we have said, is a “ simple ” system. But if mere simplicity be a merit in itself, then there is a simpler, plan still —to have no drainage at all, but to let all the refuse, solid and liquid, take itß chance. We citizens of Wellington do not go quite to that extreme, but we do go next door to it. We are perpetrating on a larger scale the delightful practice |in vogue at some old English country houses, whose drainage is carefully conducted into a stagnant pond within a few yards (aud of course within full smell) of the residence. This, wd need hardly say, means, sooner or later, a fatal experience of typhoid fever, diphtheria, aud other deadly maladies of the zymotic order. In Wellington we pour our sewage into a much bigger Jpond, it is true, but although xionsequently more diluted the filth is there, and beyond a doubt contributes its share toward the production of theßegistrar-General’s lugubrious statistics. Every place that has persisted in this foul practice has invariably bad to pay the penalty in the sacrificed lives or ruined health of its citizens. We quoted recently from the letter of a well known, Weliingtonian now in England some very apposite information as to the effects found to result from discharging sewage into harbour waters, aud many other cases might be instanced. But the case is really too clear to need any illustration at all. The dullest must see that the practice cannot fail to be a deleterious one. The question which may fairly bo retorted on us is—What else can be done with the Wellington sewage ? We believe, however, that this question can and will be readily answered. V.

A scheme is, we understand, about to be submitted to the City Council by one of our most eminent colonial engineers, Mr H. F. Higginson, M. Inst. C.E., which deals with the entire problem of Wellington drainage at a cost just about one-half less than that of the plan formerly adopted by the Council, but never carried out. Most of our readers will recollect the famous Clark and Climie contrqversy which raged with such fierceness several years ago, and which had the singular and unsatisfactory outcome of ending in nothing after an expenditure of several thousand pounds of the ratepayers’ money. Both proposed to discharge the sewage into Cook Strait by gravitation, from a certain point, but Mr Climie proposed to raise it to that point by means of a chain-pump, whilst _ Mr Clark was lor forcing it up a rising main a mile long. The cost of Mr Climie’s plan complete was estimated at about £120,000, that of Mr Clark’s at £145,000. Mr Clark’s scheme was, however, bo demonstrably superior in all respects that we may omit further reference to Mr Climie’s in the present connection,, and take Mr Clark’s plan as the standard of comparison. Now, Mr Higginson’s proposal is that the Shone Pneumatic system shall be adopted for this city, and he certainly makes out a very strong case in its favour. Ho suggests that a contour line should be drawn at an elevation of 60 feet above the sea, and that the drainage from all points at that or a greater elevation shall be discharged by gravitation into the main sewer- —a cast-iron main laid round the edge of the harbour a little above high-water level ; the gravitation drains being periodically and frequently flushed by tanks placed at their heads and automatic in action. This is plain enough and exhibits little novelty. But next has to be provided-for the drainage of the large low-lying flats, especially the reclaimed land, fo. .which the, gravitation method is wholly inapplicable. It is here that the Shone system comes in, and we may remark in passing that the system is in use in the populous English towns of Eastbourne, Southampton, Wari-ington,Wrexham and Henley-on-Thameß. It is also in operation in the French town of Cannes, where the conditions have a singularly close analogy to those of Wellington, being alike as to population natural situation, quantity of sewage to be dealt with, and length of outfall main. Mr . Higginson proposes to drain all the area lying below 60 feet elevation by means of Shor.e’s pneumatic ejectors,

which would force the sewage into the outfall main and then drive it through that main by means of compressed air, supplied from an engine stationed in the Corporation Yards, Clyde quay, and worked by the Destructor boiler in the day time by a turbine driven by the Burplus water supply at night,? therefore at a minimum of expense. We need not enter here into the mechanical details of the contrivance. Suffice it to say that the ejectors work automatically. So soon as they become full of sewage a ballcock admits a jet of compressed air, which instantly drives the sewage into and, along the outfall main. Tbat main would be continued round the edge of the harbour across Oriental Bay, by a short tunnel through Jerningbam Point and then up Evans Bay to Lyell Bay, where the sewage would either be cast into the Strait or could be delivered on the sandhills to fertilise them. Thus when once the sewage [enters the outfall main, either by gravitation from the higher Idealities, or by pneumatic ejection from the low-lying districts, it is forced along the level pipe until it reaches either the Bandhills or the open sea, whichever may be preferred. “ Duplicate compressors, ejectors, turbines, &e., would be provided so as to reduce the risk of stoppage to a minimum; while in the very unlikely event of an obstruction in even these circumstances there would be a provision for temporarily discharging the sewage into the harbour during the brief interval while repairs were effected. This plan, it will be observed, dispenses with the long tunnel, the costly brick contour sewer, the mile-long rising main, and the pumps, which formed such costly features in the Clark scheme, substituting the far simpler and cheaper pneumatic ejectors, and the compressor worked either by the Destructor boiler or by the,surplus water supply. It also avoids interference with private lands save in a very limited degree, therefore escapes the liability to heavy compensation of landowners which constituted a serious drawback of the Clark scheme. "We should add that the present drains would continue to be ÜBed for cariying off rain-water, but would not receive any house drainage, which would be entirely dealt with on the •‘separate” system by the pneumatic process above described. So far as proved efficiency and comparative simplicity go, Mr Higginson’s plan appears most satisfactory. The next point is its cost. This'he estimates at about £73,000 as against £145,000, the cost of the Clark system. The working expenses have been carefully calculated, and are put at £770 yearly, and the total annual interest at 6 per cent, is estimated at £SIOO, whereas that of Mr Clark’s was put at £10,154. This, it will be seen, is a difference of ju*t about one-half, and the cheaper scheme is not only as effective in every respect, but really superior in the scientific principles of the design, and in its practical effici-. ency, as demonstrated by actual experience. It is planned, like that of Mr Clark, for a population of 50,000, or nearly double the present population of Wellington, but when the inhabitants exceed 50,000 (which will not be for some years at any rate) the scheme can easily be expanded in proportion to any enlarged requirements. That the cost, even reduced as it is compared with former schemes, represents a very large sum of money, iB indisputable, nor can it be denied that if this sum had to be raised by loan in the ordinary way the special rate for interest would be a serious addition to the citizens’ burdens, already sufficiently heavy. But the necessity for Borne such provision for the removal of our sewage is manifest, and So far no plan equally economical and feasible has been suggested. The question of ways and means is one for the City Council to deal with, and we trust that they will take the matter into consideration without delay. If Mr Macdonald’s scheme for the consolidation of the city debt should prove practicable, that would go a long way toward providing the needful funds through reducing the outgoings by way of interest on the present loans. But a still more favourable ’method would be the general'consolidation of the municipal loans which we have advocated, and we hope that this suggestion, too, will receive due attention at the hands of the new Council.