60 Suggestions, fyc. 



also, by chemical precipitation, more especially by means of 

 lime, as at Leicester. Sewage depends almost entirely on 

 human excreta for its value as a manure. Now, while the total 

 amount of dried excreta per head per diem is only two ounces, 

 the average supply of water per head per diem amounts in 

 London to thirty gallons, and that exclusive of rainfall. The 

 problem consequently is, how to extract the two ounces of 

 solid from the thirty or forty gallons of liquid. This problem 

 is as yet unsolved, for the lime process fails to remove any 

 large proportion of the nitrogeneous constituents of sewage, 

 and the resultent manure is not sufficiently valuable to repay 

 the cost of carriage to any great distance. The results of the 

 employment of sewage water for irrigation, either on grass or 

 fallow land, are altogether more satisfactory than those in 

 which a solid sewage manure has been used." 



At any rate, from this it Avould appear that it is question- 

 able whether, if the agriculturists desired to use the sewage 

 on the lowlands in the Werribee plains, it would not be more 

 useful in its liquid form than any other. 



In excuse for the extent to which I have trespassed upon 

 your time in the consideration of this subject, I beg to say 

 that I have done so from a conviction of its importance, and 

 of the existing necessity for some decided and immediate 

 steps in the matter. In doing so, I have purposely avoided 

 • going at length into technicalities, which, besides confusing 

 the discussion, would have been interesting only to engineers. 

 I have also, for the sake of condensation, omitted the dia- 

 grams and formulae which might have confirmed, and, in some 

 cases, illustrated the reasoning. But I hope sufficient has 

 been said to awaken the attention of this Society to the 

 position in which our city stands with reference to the most 

 essential provision for the health, comfort, and morality of 

 its inhabitants. 



Gentlemen, — I am no advocate for undue Government in- 

 terference in works of a local character, but yet I fully believe 

 that the countenance of the Government to a well-digested 

 scheme of this nature would materially facilitate its realisa- 

 tion. It is a question of a most vital character to the 

 community, one in which the Government has already tacitly 

 admitted an interest by the very title of the Sewage and 

 Water Commission, and one the fostering of which would 

 reflect credit upon any Government carried on for the welfare 

 of the people. 



