372 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



effectual means for conveyance if properly designed and con- 

 structed. Baldwin Latham says, "It is the best adapted to 

 the requirements of a town-population for effecting the speedy 

 removal of the principal matter liable to decomposition, the 

 storage of which, even for a brief period, near our dwellings 

 may be attended with dangerous consequences." An efficient 

 and abundant water-supply is therefore necessary, and this 

 the City of Wellington is fortunate in possessing. 



By any system the sew-ers should be entirely free from 

 sewer-gas, the result of fermentation, requiring time to become 

 generated ; consequenth^ there must be a rapid and entire dis- 

 charge of the sewage throughout the whole. In stagnant 

 tide-locked sewers, in those laid with insufficient fall in 

 which solid matters become deposited, and in old wooden or 

 brick drains of faulty construction, this gas is generated in 

 abundance. Ventilation and traps may lessen the danger, but 

 do not remove it. 



The Superintendent of Sewers in Boston in a recent re- 

 port shows that in all sewers there is a constant movement of 

 air in the direction contrary to the grade, the gas flowing 

 upwards through every vent into houses, and through cess- 

 pools, thus permeating the atmosphere of dwellings. He 

 proposes to erect a large fan, to be operated by a powerful 

 engine, exhausting the air, and creating a draught in the direc- 

 tion of the exit which shall attain a speed of Sin. per second, 

 thus overcoming the upward movement of the gases. It is 

 evident from the foregoing that the Boston sewers are not 

 constructed according to modern sanitary laws. So important 

 is the subject of ventilation that Baldwin Latha^m devotes 

 over a hundred pages to it in " Sanitary Engineering." 



In carrying out the ordinary systems of sewerage in low- 

 lying districts ratepayers are subject to three varieties of 

 heavy expenditure — 



(1.) Initial, wbich is the cost of constructing sewers. 



(2.) Chronic, being the cost of raising the sewage by 

 pumping. 



(3.) Intermittent, being the cost of repairs and freeing the 

 sewers from stoppages — a serious item where the works are of 

 faulty design, and much increased where, in order to obtain 

 the necessary inclination, the sewers have to be placed at 

 great depth. 



The " Shone" system greatly lessens the danger, expense, 

 and inconvenience, for reasons which I shall shortly endeavour 

 to explain. 



It is generally allowed that the separate system is to be 

 preferred, both on the score of efficiency and cost, especially 

 where sewage must be raised by the expenditure of power. 

 This was, I believe, advocated by both Messrs. Climie and 



