COMPOSTING SCHEME

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6567, 17 September 1948, Page 4

COMPOSTING SCHEME

DANNEVIRKE SYSTEM INSPECTED

REPORT BY MAYOR AND TOWN . CLERK

As requested the Mayor Mr G. Spinley and the town clerk Mr T. H. Millar while in Wellington attending a conference of local body delegates made a detour on their way home to visit Dannevirke in order to see that borough’s composting scheme in operation.

A report and their impressions were conveyed to Monday night's meeting of the Te Awamutu Borough Council, by Mr Spinley and Mr Millar.

Mr Millar said that it would be five or six years before an adequate picture of the scheme could be obtained. There was very little smell and all the refuse from fish shops, butcher shops etc. was utilised. One great difficulty was the fact that bottles were often hidden away in the refuse and they had to be sorted out. A great deal of sawdust was used in the mixture that was placed on the compost heaps. Mr Millar described the treatment which he said took three months to complete. The frequent and systematic turning of the material in the heaps was a very essential feature of the system. The compost was being sold at £5 a ton and the fact that the greatest demand came from confines far beyond Dannevirke and the consequent high freights seriously interfered with the sales, but the benefits of any scheme could not be put down in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, said Mr Millar.

The Mayor in supplementing the report of the town clerk said it appeared as if the sludge from the Imhoff tank that was to be erected in connection with the Te Awamutu sewerage scheme could be used in a system of composting such as they saw in Dannevirke. There was no objectionable smell. The clerk said that there were no rats about the site, and there very few flies to be seen. Or Williams took it that it was the intention of the council to keep the report until they got the Imhoff tank installed. The Mayor said that that was so. In regards collecting refuse from houses it appeared as if householders would to have two rubbish containers. At this stage a letter from the Chamber of Commerce was read in which that body suggested that in view of the small attendance of the public at Mr D. M. Robinson’s recent lecture in Te Awamutu (due the letter said to be the multiplicity of other functions that night and the tornado at Frankton) Mr Robinson be asked to address a further meeting in Te Awamutu. The letter was referred back to the Chamber of Commerce for them to suggest a date on which such a meeting could be held. The discussion on the visit to Dannevirke then lapsed.