652 Proceedings. 



sewage farm the whole of the solids would go on the ground, oxidize 

 there, and become vegetable matter. Some straining would probably be 

 required. The difficulty in other countries had been the want of sufficient 

 land, but here we had everything favourable for a sewage farm. He was 

 sorry that Mr. Mestayer was absent through illness. He himself was in 

 favour of having a sewage farm, and he was pleased to be so ably 

 supported by Dr. Chappie. 



Mr. C. Tanner would like to know why there should be so great ex- 

 penditure of money required in keeping up a sewage farm. 



General Schaw complimented Dr. Chappie on his very lucid and in- 

 teresting paper. The subject was perhaps unsavoury, but was of the very 

 highest importance to the community. He drew attention to a subject 

 that had not been alluded to in the paper — the semi-solid constituents of 

 sewage, of which fatty matter from dish-water formed a large part. To 

 deal with that was always a serious difficulty in sewage-farming. Pre- 

 cipitation in various ways had been resorted to. Electrical precipitation 

 was apparently the best method, but then the solids had to be got rid of 

 somehow. He was glad to hear that the question of solids had been fully 

 considered, and that by distributing the sewage over a sufficient area of 

 land the difficulties connected with it would be overcome. He thought 

 it very iniportant and satisfactory that this had been brought out in 

 the discussion. The able and scientific men who were designing and 

 carrying out the drainage system for Wellington might be thoroughly 

 depended on to obtain unobjectionable results. 



Dr. Chappie, in reply, said that, ia reference to General Schaw's 

 remarks concerning the disposal of the sludge, he would point out that 

 the term " sludge " was usually confined to the abundant deposit after 

 precipitation in the chemical processes, but that in broad irrigation only 

 the larger solids were strained off, and the deposit, when tanks were used, 

 was small in quantity, the whole of the solids suspended in the sewage 

 being deposited over the land. Sir James Hector's example of anthrax 

 springing from a buried sheep would be an example of bad management 

 in a sewage farm, analogous to a decomposing deposit— a state of things 

 never permitted on a well-managed farm. Pathogenic germs were de- 

 stroyed by the Bacteria of the soil, and the absence of typhoid on the 

 Berlin farms while an epidemic raged in the city was strong proof that the 

 germs of disease were destroyed by the vegetative and bacterial processes. 

 Sir James Hector's remarks about the absence of danger from deposit 

 and tearing up in times of heavy rainfall, due to the separate system of 

 sewage, had been referred to by JNlr. Higginson. The system was only a 

 "partially separate" one in the low-lying levels, but in the high levels 

 (two-thirds of the town area) the rainwater would be admitted to the 

 sewers, and the flow would in rainy weather be enormously increased. 

 The danger of deposit and flood in times of heavy rain would thus have 

 to be considered. In reply to Mr. Ferguson he admitted that one acre 

 for every hundred of population might be a low estimate if the soil 

 were porous, for some land took the sewage from up to five hundred 

 persons for each acre. The bleakness of the situation might not be much 

 objection, but the effect of southerly gales upon trees about the city, and 

 the comparative absence of vegetation upon the sandhills, were unfavour- 

 able indications. He thought the popular prejudice against sewage- 

 grown products would soon be overcome when people were educated to 

 the fact that these were as pure and wholesome as those from any other 

 farm. In conclusion he thanked those present for the kindly and appre- 

 ciative way in which they had received his paper. 



Ml'. A. McKay exhibited a live kea or mountaiu-pan'ot 

 {Nestor notabilis), which he had kept for about a year at his 

 house, and which had become quite tame, and performed all 



