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A. Yes.
874. Suppose you wanted to ventilate a sewer what system would you follow?
A. Before you can ventilate the sewers as they exist now, the Government must take the initiative and compel all householders to ventilate. It would be most dangerous for any one now because that one would get the accumulated gases of the whole neighbourhood. There is the case Dr. AYRES quoted the other day. On the 15th instant he said "He did not suppose that when he came here there was a single pipe that did not go straight into the main drain. He had had to cut the pipes of every house he had lived in," and then he went on to say that in the house Mr. MODY lives in now, he left one bath room uncut and the following tenant of that room got typhoid fever. That was to be expected. He first unventilated the sewer and then when the next tenant came and went into the one room where it remained connected, he naturally got typhoid fever. That has been going on everywhere. My own firm must have trapped and disconnected thousands of houses during the last few years. I suppose there is hardly a European house that is not trapped now.
875.- Is there no temporary remedy that can be applied to get rid of these smells ?
A.-Temporary is rather an uncertain word. I believe if the Government were to oblige every European house, and every third or fourth Chinese house to put a pipe leading from the sewer to the eaves of the house, it would practically remedy it.
876.-That would be ventilating the sewers; they have no traps.
A.-I beg your pardon, they are all trapped. In the two drawings I have here, one of seventy houses, another of fifty, they are all trapped.
877.—Well, where would you ventilate; beyond the trap?
A.-They are only trapped at the outlet; that is to say, where they throw in the sewage, the first thing it has to pass is the trap. I would not trap the sewers them- selves.
878.-But if you are going to ventilate the present system you will have to ventilate beyond the traps?
A.-The trap is simply to the sump.
879. —[Dr. CANTLIE drew a diagram and took the witness's opinion on it. ]
A.---You are assuming the trap to disconnect the sewer, It does not do that. The trap is on the top and the drain runs underneath. All you would have to do would be to bring down a stink pipe from the eaves of the house into the drain.
seal.
880.-What form of trap do you use?
A.-We have traps cast by the Dock Company to our own design.
881. The same as the Government?
A. Yes, but the centre web comes down about an inch lower and makes a better
882. Is it covered over?
A.-No, it is open.
883.--Then the pipe leading to it must be disconnected?
A.-The trap makes the disconnection.
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