xli 



carried out for £60,000, and neither the Central Board nor the Govern- 

 ment, if they are separable, will pay off our scores. 



It has just been stated that the system cannot be carried out for 

 £60,000. In order to justify such a statement, we must glance at a 

 few of the details. Of course we are all aware that Mr. Mault's report 

 is but a sketch, and that the figures are not intended to be taken as 

 absolutely exact, but in these my remarks I have, rightly or wrongly, 

 nevertheless as correctly as I am able, with the time I have at my 

 command, arrived at somewhat different conclusions as far as regards 

 cost of sewers. 



Noticing only in the estimate for sewers. No. 1. Egg-shaped brick 

 culvert, 3ft. 6in. by 2ft. Sin. inside measurement, it is priced at 42s. per 

 luteal yard ; and as excavation, shoring, bedding, centreing, bricks, 

 cement, filling-in, and ramming and metalling, are not mentioned as 

 being in part excluded, I take it that the 42s. is meant to include all 

 the expense attached to each item in that No. 1 estimate. 



I presume that the largest sewer will be constructed with its crown 

 4ft. below the surface at the very least, the depth of the excavations 

 then required will be 9ft., and the width will be at least 5ft.; that 

 Will amount to five cubic yards of excavation in a treacherous subsoil, 

 Probably at times cutting through solid rock ; this, with the shoreing, 

 filling in, ramming, metalling, and carting away, should be worth at 

 least 7s. 6d. per cubic yard, or £1 17s. 6d. per lineal yard. The bricks 

 lor the sewer would cost £1 7s. 9d., the cement for the sewer and 

 sewer bed £1 7s., and calculating only 15s. for bedding, centreing, and 

 laying the bricks, we have a total of £5 8s. 6d. per lineal yari for No. 1 

 sewer, or more than double the price mentioned in the report. 



But if the localities where this sewer is indicated have a subsoil of 

 blue metal or sandy or unmade ground (for according to Mr. Mault's 

 "nap much ground of this nature will be met with in laying No, 1 

 Sewer), I have it on excellent authority that the cost would be, not 42s. 

 Per lineal yard, nor yet my estimate of £5 8s. 6d., but 200s. per lineal 

 yard. 



If the remaining prices arc similarly low, the total estimate of 

 *60,000 must be considerably increased. 



Usually, the streets in which underground sewers are laid have the 

 gas and water mains laid at the same time, and the streets are then 

 Paved with setts ; this protects the sewers from being choked with 

 street detritus, and the same course should be here adopted. The 

 systems of sewers and pipes should be laid at or near and under the 

 s We channel, so that any interference with the carriage way when 

 once made would be unnecessary. But to pave 37 miles of street would 

 oe an enormous outlay for a scattered city like Hobart, sufficient to 

 make the most extravagant pause and consider whether the existing 

 sewers may not, with repairs and additions, be made to serve all our 

 Purposes for many years, A thorough inspection and subsequent repair, 

 or, _ where required, a renewal of the existing sewers is without doubt 

 desirable, but it would not be judicious to rush into the magnificent 

 x pense of large English cities when we do not possess their magnificent 

 resources. 



tV, lm ^ er ground sewers were laid in the principal natural watercourses 

 "at are as yet without them, and if good cement- concrete side channels 



I e ' a '^> w ' tn their inlets to the underground sewers properly trapped 

 and regularly flushed, automatically or otherwise, it is probable that 

 °t much, if any, nuisance would arise therefrom. 



It appears, according to Mr. Mault's report, that there are about 



pv; J* nas -i" st been ascertained that in this city there are now only 1,278 cesspits 

 B.1 B S ' The PaU closets ™ m ber 2,965, and waterclosets 514. Oct. 13, 1886. 



