POLLUTION OF STREAMS

Southland Times, Issue 22009, 8 May 1933, Page 6

POLLUTION OF STREAMS

Although the Acclimatisation Societies are interested in the matter jfrimarily from the viewpoint of sport, it must be admitted that their activities in connection with the pollution of streams are concerned with matters which go further than the protection of fish. The law has made it clear that to throw sawdust into a stream in which there are trout or salmon is an offence, and it has given into the hands of Acclimatisation Societies the task of protecting streams from other forms of pollution where it can be shown that fish are killed. In great part, the pollution which causes the trouble comes from industry, and usually the claims of industry are put forward in contrast to the claims of sport; but riparian owners have also to be considered, and also the public health. Naturally, it is unwise to put forward the plea that sport must be safeguarded regardless of industry, but New Zealand should take notice of the experience in the Old Country, where it has been found necessary to deal jointly with the problem of stream pollution in the interests of public health. It is a simple matter to show by analysis that owing to the volume of water in a river the effect of pollution by solids is theoretically harmless; but where raw drainage is cast into a river that river cannot be regarded as healthy. Where solids enter the stream from industrial plants, decomposition must follow, and the results cannot be pleasant to put the point mildly. This country has followed the Old Country in checking the discharge of oil into enclosed waters, and people should not overlook the more important question of the pollution of streams, from any one of which people, without knowledge of what is being discharged into it, may draw drinking water. This question is one for very serious consideration because it involves far more than the interests of fishermen, and experience in other countries has shown that the pollution of water courses, by industry or municipalities can develop into a very serious problem.