THE ABATTOIRS SEWERAGE PROBLEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14213, 14 May 1908, Page 8

THE ABATTOIRS SEWERAGE PROBLEM.

TO THE EDITOR, Sm,—A sputtering member of the Drain age and fcwerago,Board had tho temerity to assert some months ago that, on these questions I was as dead as a door nail"— but he was very seriously mistaken, and many times since I have had many hearty laughs at his inept opinion, even' when I have been wagging his unctuous paw. In your Tuesday's issue your first local indicated that there might bo no difficulty in the matter of the Drainage Board ''accepting the drainage" of tho abattoirs, which are outside the district that is rated to deal with these matters. Strictly speaking, the sewerage or trade effluent from tho abattoirs was meant, but I forgive tho mistake because legal and other experts, as well as laymen, so frequently misuse a . I ?« confuse these terms, which are entirely different in their function. A drain is a drain, a sewer ie a sewer—whatever their size may be, though both aro pipes and conduits.

Now, what I wish to ask and to clearly indent on my (ellow ratepayers is this: 1. AMiat quality and quantity pf this impuro trade effluent it is proposed to deliver into the sewers of the larger bodyset up to deal with these matters lo bo discharge-:! the suctiyn well, then pumped into the gravitation eetver to tho outfall, then einpt ied into the ocean outfall at Lawyer's Head in the vicinity of those beaches several members of tho pre- \ sent board aud the Government thought would be polluted if the sewage had been shot out at Bird Island? And in asking that question I know how the local authorities elsewhere strictly define a-nd lirriit tho kind of abatioir sewage tlley will accept and deal with. 2. I wish to ask what sum of money the city is prepared to pay for the services rendered to it in that respect by tho general body of ratewers living in tli« larger area "of the Drainage and Sewerage Board. 3. Whaf indemnitv will be offered to the ratepayers of this larger area ill ease a nuisance is created, contributed to, and increased. by this reception of sewerage from au outside watershed.

■Seeing some members of the Jxiard are members of the City Council, I boldly ask I hose queries, and later on will ask a few more. ' I wish tc interpose that I have everv sympathy with the City Council in tho trouble it has had with the xiliattoii sewerage, but the milking of the fUiburhs ta tlie advantage of the city may be carried too far.—l auij etf., Maj MULPN Qovcuikbi,