2 
Now, in these instances referred to, as also in those brought before the 
Board of Health, no fault could be found with the premises from 
which the offensive slops proceeded — yards clean, gutters bricked and 
cemented, or tile drained. I shall only refer further to the greatest 
cause of a nuisance I believe in Brisbane at the present time. It is 
the water flowing from the butchers’ shops near to the Post Office. 
Let the Inspector go into these shops any time in the day or night 
and there will be nothing he can find fault with ; yet water comes from 
these places and runs down the open gutter to Edward street, from 
thence under ground to Adelaide street open ditch, and there it gives 
off its offensive exhalations in abundance. To sensitive people it is 
often quite bad enough in Queen street. The getting rid of these 
nuisances is the object of this paper. 
The plan I would propose is that no water be allowed to flow 
from off any person’s premises, containing offensive matter. 
Taking the butchers’ shops first, I would stop any water flowing 
from off their premises at all. It might be asked, what would I have 
done with it ? I would have them to put it into a cask or tank and 
have it carted out to the country. This might cost them two or three 
shillings more per day, but what is that to destroying other people’s 
healths, as is done at present P They might also use dry earth, or char- 
coal, or carbolic acid, so as to avoid having bad smells about their 
premises. 
With reference to slops, the more extensive evil, I w r ould have 
every person to have them so purified by filtration before leaving their 
premises that the issuing w r ater would never be offensive. This I have 
had done at my own house for over twmlve years, so that the plan pro- 
posed is cheap, simple, and efficient. 
The plan as carried out on my own place is as follows. About 
twenty years ago I had the strip of ground below my house trenched 
and a drain put in on the rock ; — depth about three feet. About twelve 
years ago I had an addition made to the house, and had the kitchen 
altered, and then put in the distributing drain for carrying away the 
slops from the kitchen. This drain goes from the sink in the kitchen, 
a distance of about six feet, and then divides into two branches, and 
these go each a distance of about eighteen feet. They go on each side 
of the drain — that is, about three feet deep. The distributing drain is 
made of three-inch horse-shoe tiles resting on hardwood flooring boards. 
The bottom of the drain is about a foot below the surface. I think 
that nine or ten inches is deep enough. This drain has required to be 
cleaned about two or three times a year, and a man can do it in a fore- 
noon. No smell can be detected about this drain, indeed its presence 
is not known, unless when it is filled and requires cleaning. The 
cleaning consists in opening up the drain, lifting up the tiles, and 
shovelling the sludge into a bucket, and removing it to a suitable place 
— the garden in my instance. The horse-shoe tiles are much prefer- 
