17

E. S. PABKEB.

1.—12 a.

10. What was your method before you caught the stripper-slips? — Previously they went down the river. You could see them right through the Town of Blenheim—and the pulp, too. 11. Mr. Baldwin.] Are these gratings sufficient to stop the whole of the stripper-slips and the fibre from getting into the river?— Practically all, I think. 1 have not been running this grating long enough yet to know. 12. What length is the grating?—We have only got one. about 6 ft. long. We propose to make a longer one, to get it a bit further out in the stream. 13. You are making it, for your own purposes, not for the purpose of helping to purify the water?—We are making it to catch the stripper-slips, because they have a value now. 14. What length of grating do you think would be absolutely effective to catch the wdiole of the stripper-slips and the fibre? —I think we shall catch them all on the 6 ft. Of course, we are not attempting to catch the vegetation—the pulp. 15. A very small expense would effectively prevent the whole of the waste —excepting pulp— going into the river? —1 think so. 16. You have taken no steps whatever to stop what we call the pulp from getting into the river -None whatever. It is a big stream that we put it into, and ours is the only mill on the stream 17. You yourself can give us no personal experience as to any effort being made to keep this stuff out of the river?—No; we make no effort at all in the Marlborough District. 18 Mr. Buick.] You said that a few years ago the stripper waste was all put into the river : were there any complaints about its injuring the fish? —No, no complaints at all about the fish. We have very good fish there. Of course, the fishermen, when they caught a slip from my stripper, growled, and used to come and ask me to pay for a new rod if they broke one. This effluent does not pollute the water at all. It runs right through the Town of Blenheim. You can stand on the bridge and see the fine stuff floating on the top of the water. 19. Mr. Sykes.] The Omaka is a very big volume of water, is it not? —It is a fair-sized stream, and it is very clear water to start with. You could use it for a town supply. 20. Mr. Buick.] Is it a tidal river? —Not by the mill. It is lower down. 21. Mr. Sykes.] You have made no effort to prevent pulp going into the water, have you? — I have had no reason to. I think I am probably worse situated than any other mill, in that every scrap of my pulp runs right through the borough of Blenheim. 22. There has been no complaint from the residents? —None at all. 23. Mr. Forbes.] Is the water of the river used at all for drinking purposes, or anything like that? —Only casually. It is used by all the stock. There are people who go and dip the water out of the river for household use, but they are very few, because practically all round we have spring streams running in, and they can get water just as quickly out of a spring stream. 24. There is no complaint on the score of your spoiling the water-supply at all?— None whatever. 25. The Chairman.] Would the Committee be right in assuming that the volume of water in the Omaka is so large that the small quantity you put in would not mean anything much ?—Yes, I think they would. The only thing you can ever notice in the stream is that occasionally, where there is a still spot, the pulp collects, and you will sometimes see a bed formed ; but there is clear water running over it always. 26. Did you understand the question that I put to the last, witness as to the possible arrest of all the pulp by the simple process that I indicated?—l heard that question. You mentioned a quarter-inch mesh. I think you would have a hard job to hold it in a quarter-inch mesh. I think the pulp would run away. 27. Would you be surprised to hear that quarter-inch mesh used in that way has proved effectual? —It would if there was any fibre amongst it at all; but the grating takes most of that out. 28 I refer to the pulp. The meshes immediately got blocked by the pulp? —Yes. I think that most of the pulp would be caught by the method you have explained. I have not seen it tried. I know that Mr. Chaytor, a miller down our way, takes the effluent all away in a stream and runs it on to a swamp-like park, and the water runs away and eventually gets into the river in a dirty colour, but the vegetation is all taken out of it by the time it gets there. I have 7 ft. of fall at my mill, and it sweeps everything clean out. 29. Mr. Sykes.] What would be the condition of the water when it eventually did get back into the river after meandering through the swamp? —It would have that green colour, I suppose. 30. Would the water be in a bad condition ? Would it remain long in the swamp before it got back again? —I have not had any experience. We have no swamp near us at all. 31. The Chairman.] Would the Committee be right in assuming that in your particular circumstances, with plenty of strong-running water, you do not care twopence about any Bill, because you are not afraid of any complaint by any one? Would the Committee be right in assuming that to be your view of it?—l think so. I am not afraid of any complaint from a nuisance point of view. 32. Have the fishermen ever told you that you poison the fish?—No; on the contrary, they seem to think the fish do well on it. The best fishing-ground is close to the mill. 33. So you are not afraid of the fishermen? —No, not from the point of view of the quality of the fish. Alexander James Toogood recalled. (No. 9.) 1. The Chairman.] You heard my question about the wire-netting enclosures. If the first settling-tank was allowed to drain for four or five days, or whatever it might be, and you reerected the wire netting again at a different place, and so on, you would have a succession of

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