277
COPY.
Extract from Report on the Sewerage and Sewage disposal of Melbourne by James Mansergh. 1890.
Present Sanitary Condition.
Having now described in general terms the boundaries, area, physiography, and present population of the district to be dealt with I will say a few words about its sanitary condition.
In doing so I will make no excuse for quoting freely from the very admirable and exhaustive Reports of the "Royal Commission appointed in March, 1888, to enquire into and report upon the sanitary condition of Melbourne". My appointment is one of the outcomes of the Commissioners' investigation and recommendations, and therefore my report may be considered in a sense a sequel to other reports, and to be read after them.
I have deemed it advisable, however, to incorporate herein so much of the evidence they have collected, and the opinions they have formed, as will serve as part of the basis for my advice, and will render my story logically complete in itself.
I can confirm the statements contained in the Commissioners' Reports from the personal inspection of public roads, rights of way and private property both inside and out all over the Metropolis.
I sailed down the Yarra from near Dight's Falls to Hobson's Bay and walked along every tributary in the district, and I carefully inspected several of the localities where typhoid and diphtheria had specially prevailed.
Everyone is conversant with the arrangement under which practically all the fouled liquids of Melbourne flow in open gutters on the surface of the public streets.
The Commission's detailed description is as follows:-
"The liquid refuse is conducted in the first instance into the street channels. It consists of urine, a small quantity of night-soil, kitchen water, bath water, soap suds from the washing of clothes, the drainage from stables and cow-sheds, the waste liquids and washings of trades and manufactories, mixed to a varying degree with the surface water from the streets and house roofs. The amount of the refuse is also constantly varying. At one time the street channels are full to overflowing