Drainage for Melbourne. 45 



are most imminent. On no other theory can I account for 

 the expenditure so freely incurred to supply Melbourne and 

 other cities with water , whilst drainage has been left almost 

 totally unattended to. Our colony is not solitary in this display 

 of energy in one essential, and apathy in another of equal ulti- 

 mate moment. The London Board of Health noticed the like 

 feeling at home. "Sometimes, indeed/' say they, "women 

 complain of the want of water or of its excess in lower apart- 

 ments ; but they appear to be unaware of the effects of filth and 

 over-crowding as causes of mortal disease among their chil- 

 dren."* Ignorance is in this, as in most matters, the great 

 obstacle to improvement. There are some who say that we do 

 not want drainage — some that it would be too costly for our 

 means — whilst others pronounce it impossible. To the first, I 

 would reply that the increasing foulness of the lower portions of 

 the city, and the foetid exhalations emitted from the cesspools, 

 crowding its back courts and yards, are sufficient to prove 

 the contrary. To the second, I might say that the preserva- 

 tion of health and the diminution of mortality are scarcely 

 to be reckoned by the same tariff as a marketable commodity; 

 but I shall, I trust, be able to show you, in detail, that there 

 is no foundation for the assertion of difficulty upon the score 

 of expense. And to the third,. I may, in a general sense, 

 allege, that where there is a well defined surface drainage, as 

 in our own case, underground sewage, with the means placed 

 by science at our disposal, is not impracticable. On all the 

 points raised I shall endeavor to place before you, as suc- 

 cinctly as I can, such facts and inferences as will meet every 

 objection ; at the same time endeavoring to show the neces- 

 sity and advantage of early operations, to obviate the dangers 

 which our previous neglect has rendered imminent. 



And, firstly, as to the want of drainage : 



In densely populated cities, similar in situation to Mel- 

 bourne, there is, necessarily, a considerable portion of animal 

 impurity in the surface drainage. To this every house con- 

 tributes from the culinary and cleansing operations of the 

 day, if frOm no other cause. In the lower and most crowded 

 classes of dwellings this will be the case, but in a more aggra- 

 vated form. A comparison of the pale yellow-tinted surface- 

 water running in the streets during heavy rain, with the dark 

 colored and foul out-porings from the house-drains taking 



* Report from 1848 to 1854, published 1854; p. 36. 



