THE WELLINGTON DESTRUCTOR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7002, 18 January 1901, Page 1

THE WELLINGTON DESTRUCTOR.

[From Our Correspondent.] . WELLINGTON, Jan. 17. I observe an one of >t)he late telegrams from Christchurch that *he determination of your QL'ty Council .to erect a destructor at once has been obstructed by gentlemen who have made statements about the behaviour of the destructor here. Having madfe.inquiries^ I am in a position to uay tihat in these statements there ds not one word of trubh. I have no doubt that Dr Thiacker aoid tihe gentlemen; who, wdtfe.'tihe ooarage worthy of a befcter cause, made t!hat protest, will be glad to learn the facts. , They iaire— '(l) That in the un-animous opinion of dozens of people who live, near the Wellington dtestruobor thejy ieceive, no more harm from its smoke •tfhan from any ordiuary chimney ; (2) the statement that vegetatiom is destroyed 'by the dust falling from tihe destructor chimney is" new 'here, and has been received! wifth derisive laughter; (3) an .t3w early days, About!' ten or eleven years ago, lihere were many complaints — (a) that the combustion in the destructor was dangerously imperfect; (b) that many of the papers supposed to be burnt therein escaped from I/he chimney in a- legible condition; (c) that the residents on the high levels found the smoke of the destructor very offensive. 'Now) these complaints were perfectly fouiidedj as I remember of imy own knowledge, but they are now ancient history; (d) tflie chimney was green-, and the time was winter, moreovei/, the quantity of stuff to <be burnt was double the quaintity calculated for, hence .the combustion was dangerously imperfecft. The chimney, is, ofyoourse, no longer green, and the draught has been improved, bat the accommodation ds still insufficient, experience having demonstrated that the destructor shouM lave eight cells instead of four. At the same time, it is clear that tihe combustion, tlhough not ideally complete, is sufficiently so to secure the commußdiby against all danger from organic an'aitter.. As to the smells, there have been ©0 complaints for years. The pafperg being .put right in flew up the chimney 'before, they could be burnt, and got*away in a legible condition, to *he driggusfc of many people who iwere led to ibelieve tfche destructor to be as* secret as the grave, but a. screen at the top of the chSmney veiw soon made the deisrtrueter reliable, and iw> [papers ibave been seen wandering (for many years past. The lack of the other four cells simply causes tfhe clinker to be & little imperfect, but there is no saaiituTy danger and not any unpleasantness.