412 APPENDIX. [No. XXXVI.C. 



effluent stream should be labelled, to show what it is; (11) the sewage 

 should not be applied to any salad; and (12) no herbage should be sold or 

 used less than one month after irrigation has ceased : (13) nor should 

 herbage be used for milch cows less than six weeks after the cessation of 

 the irrigation ; (14) no vegetables should be sold for human food within 

 two months of irrigation; (15) good and wholesome water should be 

 supplied to the sewage-grounds, (16) and to any district where the wells 

 are poisoned by the sewage ; (17) in aU towns having sewage-grounds the 

 Registrar of deaths should post every week at his office the number of 

 deaths from zymotic diseases, and, where practicable, the number of 

 persons attacked, particularising the name of the disease. 



When all this is done, stiU the miasmatic, marsh-like influence of a 

 sewage-ground remains as a perpetual irremediable evil. If these condi- 

 tions are requisite for the reasonably safe conduct of sewage-grounds, then 

 where is there a sewage-ground which has attended to any one of them, 

 and has not conducted its operations regardless of injury to adjoining pro- 

 perty, but solely as a saving of cost to its own district ? Surely legislation 

 is urgently needed; and unless aU known sanitary science is ignored, 

 sewage irrigators shotdd be compelled to act under recognized universal 

 sanitary laws. 



The penalties which have been recommended have been only those 

 which would commend themselves to the minds of any impartial person to 

 protect the public against the misdirection of sewage-gi'ounds. They are 

 so obviously important as to require no comment. From my experience of 

 these local Boards of Health every statement is met with a flat denial, and 

 I should not be surprised to hear the necessity for such legislative enact- 

 m.ents denied. If there are local Boards of Health, however, who deny the 

 premisses upon which the necessity for penalties is concluded, they need 

 not fear the consequences. The penalties would not apply to themselves, 

 and they would conduct their self-esteemed perfect processes without fear 

 of molestation. To those who assume that their operations are perfect 

 I would say. Help the public to make those who do not conduct their 

 operations properly change their bad course. 



The great sewage irrigation farm of Croydon is near my experimental 

 garden, and I have therefore had the fullest opportunities of noticing its 

 disgusting career. If the proposed penalties were enacted, the Board of 

 Health would have fallen heavily under the lash. For instance — 



1. Sewage is caiTiedin a parish away from their 



land without leave of the inhabitants : they 



would incur a penalty of £50 a day. 



2. They constantly irrigate within 200 yards of 



other property or highways 10 „ 



3. Sewage is not defecated 50 „ 



4. Sewage often runs over the ground, and is 



not filtered through the ground 10 „ 



5. Sewage runs over other property 20 „ 



6. Great sewer artei'y is not covered near 



highway 25 „ 



7. Sewage is used for the growth of salad to an 



enormous extent 100 „ 



