enterprises, etc. 
Tromson.On the Oleansing of Towns. 67 
the question was not of a technical nature in the first place, and at that 
time, but of the power to bear taxation on the part of the citizens, in their 
anticipated progress and increase, in estimating which (a duty of the statis- 
tician rather than of the engineer) they may be said to have failed. Study 
of the various works applied to cities-in Europe will illustrate this fact in 
every direction; but here, also, fhe lesson cannot escape us. The practical 
end of all the professional advice given to the Dunedin Commission has 
been, that the sewage is carried to the nearest available point; that is, 
into the harbour fronting the city, and into which area it will flow till 
sufficient opposition has been conjured up to prevent it. 
This is the history of older cities ; so it is the same of younger. 
And continuing our theme, with Dunedin as our example; This city, 
like London, having adopted the water-gravitation principle of cleansing, 
the sewage will flow to its assigned levels, till, as in its great prototype, it 
becomes an intolerable nuisance. Then the city authorities will have to 
look abroad for projects in its disposal otherwise; and to all of them, from 
local interests, there will be objections. The question in the end resolves 
itself, not into attaining a project which has no objections attached to it, but 
to one which has the least. Hence, as we see in the cities of the Home 
country, the wearied and puzzled municipalities will have to look to the 
harbour as an easy solution of their difficulties, but to be opposed by the 
Boards in charge of this interest. Next, they will look to the ocean beach, 
to be thwarted by the suburban population and pleasure-seekers of that 
locality. Perchance, then, imitating the Borough of Brighton, they may 
have power to tunnel to beyond Tomahawk on the one side, or Green Island 
on the other; or, taking example by the inland cities of England, such as 
Birmingham, Leeds, or Bradford, they will discourage the water-gravitation 
system, and, perforce, purify their sewage before delivering it into the 
subjacent water of their estuary. 
In Christchurch we also have a recent example in the colony of want of 
unanimity as to measures, the projected scheme only to be thwarted by the 
ratepayers ; the real difficulty being, not what should be done, bat what 
the majority of the several interests will allow to be done. 
From this, it might be inferred, that sanitary engineering is at 2 A 
experimental. To this it may be answered, that it has hitherto bee largely 
80, a necessary concomitant of the modern advance of science, t altered i 
conditions of ae and the variety and complicates arrangements 0 fits 
requirements. In this, it has been no otherwise. with other practical and 
economical branches, eps as railroads, steam navigation, m in 
ut large data, the result of experiment an 
are also now fee i nobi ee 
