Wellington PJdlosopJdcal Society. 533 



Seventh Meeting. 30th November, 1879. 

 J. Carruthers, M. Inst. C.E., Vice-president, in the chair. 



1. " On the Cleansing of Towns," by J. TurnbuU Tliomson, C.E., 

 F.E.G.S., F.E.S.S.A., Surveyor-General of New Zealand, f Transactions, 

 p. 38.) 



Mr. Field thought that credit was due to Mr. Thomson for bringing before the New 

 Zealand public in a concise and handy form the opinions of Sir John Bazalgette and 

 other eminent English engineers. He regretted, however, that the Surveyor-General had 

 not made any allusion to the sewage farm and irrigation works of Bedford, a town 

 which in point of size as well as in many other particulars closely resembled the 

 City of Wellington. As was well known, Mr.' Climie had, in his report, recommended 

 that the sewage of the whole city should be discharged on the low land at the south-west 

 corner of Evans Bay. Mr. Clark also had, in general terms, agreed in this opinion. But 

 various objections were raised, and hitherto nothing had been done. He remembered, 

 when he was last in Bedford, in the autumn of 1876, carefully going over the sewage 

 farm, and being much pleased with the excellent system of drainage in that town. 

 Previous to the year 1868 the beautiful river Ouse had been poisoned by imperfect drains ; 

 but for the last eight or nine years a complete system of water, sewerage, and irrigation 

 works had been in existence, with highly satisfactory results. Through the centre of the 

 town ran one main sewer, receiving in its course the discharge of the lateral drains, and 

 emptying the whole into a tank 17 feet deep, from which it was pumped up and chsti-ibuted 

 by pipes over the irrigation farm. This farm of 180 acres was rented by the Corporation 

 at the high rate of £1,000 (about) per annum, but this charge was more than repaid by 

 the produce, which, on the lowest average, would sell at more than £1,500, in addition 

 to which some grass land was sublet for £200, thus bringing the total annual receipts to 

 £1,700 odd. Italian rye grass and roots of various descriptions formed the principal 

 crops, and grew with a remarkable luxuriance. As to what had been said with regard to 

 the stench arising from sewage farms, he could from personal observation assert that Mr. 

 Thomson was entirely mistaken, and that, except in very rare instances, no offensive 

 odom- could at any time be detected. 



Mr. O'Neill considered the paper a very valuable one, but hoped there would be an 

 opportunity afforded of renewing the discussion ; the subject was a very wide one, and 

 he was not prepared to enter upon it on the present occasion. 



Dr. Newman said that very little real progress had been made in the last ten years 

 in our sanitary knoAvledge. A great deal was talked and written about the subject, but 

 no fresh light had been thrown on the matter for some years past. He thought the 

 subject was talked threadbare. All our experience had taught us was that there were 

 only two systems — the wet and the dry. In the Sahara and similar districts the wet 

 system was impossible, but where, as in "Wellington, there was abundance of water and 

 good outlet, there was no question but that the only way was to cast it into the sea. A 

 sewage farm had never j^et been made to pay. It was a great error to suppose that 

 sewage was very profitable; it was really almost valueless, and the products of precipi- 

 tation not worth the cost of carting. Food, such as bread and meat, etc., if buried, might 

 aid the growth of strawberries and melons, but if eaten and passed through that 

 laboratory, the human stomach, it became disintegrated, chemically changed, and the 

 sewage was almost worthless. One modern improvement was the use of cement pipes 

 instead of earthenware pipes. 



