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out of present cesspools and filling them up with earth
level to the surrounding surface. This involves the
construction of two waggons, built on the principle of
the scavenger's waggons of London, and the purchase
of a large quantity of "Carbolic acid" to disinfect
the sewage matter to be moved. This has been proved
in England not to affect the fertilizing properties of
the night soil as manure, while it renders it innocuous
to health. As the "carbolic acid" is manufactured
in England and used in large quantities for disinfect-
ing very considerable collections of sewage matter of
towns, it cannot be of such a price as to preclude
its being used here for this purpose. The sale at
once of this disinfected ordure to agriculturists would
recoup this expense, or the greater portion of it; and
its effects on the land would encourage other farmers
to buy the manure produced by the earth-closets and
the scavenging of ash pits, manure heaps and sweeping
of streets. To ensure the successful working of this
or any plan of scavenging for the city, it is absolutely
necessary that a Board of Health should be established;
that two at least of its members should be members of
the medical profession. That such Board should be
composed of the members of the Commission now
enquiring into this important matter, merely patting
a medical man in the place of the Provincial Engineer,
not that this gentleman is not admirably fitted to be
of the Board, but that his peculiar duties calling
upon him frequently to be months away from the city,
would prevent his regular attendance at the meetings,
which should be periodical and at no long intervals;
and I would propose that the services of the
Board should be gratuitously given for the common
weal. It is usual in England that a Health Officer, a
medical man, should be appointed to act under the
Board, but the salary which would reimburse any of
the profession in Nelson must necessarily be large to
enable him to devote his time exclusively to the
office, which to render effective he must do. I would
propose that the office of Inspector of Nuisances
should be given with a proportionate salary, say £200
per annum, to some one of intelligence and education,
if possible, possessing an income not derived from
business, who would thus be in a position to act
without fear of or favour to any one; and that his
responsibility should be transferred from the Board
of Works to the Board of Health. The office of
Inspector of Nuisances, as at present constituted, has
proved of no benefit to the inhabitants; nuisances,
stinking in the nostrils of every one else, appearing
to have no effect on the senses of an officer especially
appointed to have the nuisances abated. As a fitting
person to hold the office under the Board of Health, I
would suggest Mr. Clements, who took much trouble
in getting up the public meeting, the result of which
was the appointment of the present Commission, and
who is happily possessed of means of livelihood
independent of the salary that would be attached to
the office of Inspector of Nuisances. While on the
subject of the health of the city, I do not think it at
all irrational to suggest that the Commission should
should bring before the notice of his Honor the
Superintendent and the Executive Government (and
I think it quite competent for it to do so), the
advisableness of inaugurating some plan for reclaiming
the mudflat, if even the whole of the available
Provincial Funds are not sufficient to go to the
expense, and that borrowing money is inexpedient.
Might it not be done by inducing some company
with foreign capital to embark in the work, by a
liberal grant from the so reclaimed land, and still
leave a good portion as Provincial estate, either to be
leased or sold as deemed most expedient? Its
reclamation would be of vast benefit to the health of
the city, and would add not a little to its attrac-
tiveness as a place of settlement to men of business.
Moreover, it would be a means of lessening the silting
up of the harbor, which is complained of sometimes.

I am, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
FRANCIS L. VICKERMAN,
Medical Officer of the Hospital, &c.
To C. Hunter Brown, Esq.,
Honorary Secretary to the Commission of
Enquiry into the Drainage of Nelson.

Nelson, May 20th, 1867.

DEAR SIR,—In reply to your communication of
the 13th instant, concerning the drainage and
sewerage of Nelson, requesting me to give an opinion
on the subject, I may remark that although the
main sewer and its tributary in Hardy-street,
receiving at present, I believe, the sewage of only
thirty or forty houses, may not as yet exercise any
appreciably bad effect upon the health of the inhabi-
tants, it is nevertheless quite certain that if the town
become densely peopled, the sewage be allowed to
find its way as it does now at all states of the tide to
the mudflat in various stages of decomposition, the
health of the inhabitants must be very injuriously
affected by it. Indeed, even now, in summer time, a
most offensive odour may be detected along the beach
road, when the air is moist and close proceeding from
the mudflat, when left exposed by the ebb tide.

Whenever sewage is carried by water, unless the
current be rapid and continuous, there will always be
deposited upon the banks of such river or stream a
putrescent slime or ooze of a very offensive and
deleterious character.

I cannot help thinking that before any satisfactory
system of drainage can be adopted it will be advisable
to decide whether the sewage shall be utilised or not,
because if allowed the question of allowing it to pass
into the existing sewers or any extension of them is
at once disposed of, for to be made use of it must be
collected in a more concentrated form than would be
possible under all circumstances and at all times from
the sewers, moreover in a fluid state, unless for
purposes of irrigation, it is very unmanageable; and
companies at home who have endeavored to make it
marketable have had their experiments brought to a
sudden termination by indictments and law suits, the
nuisance being so intolerable.

Liquid sewage can be carried by means of pumps and
pipes to any distance, and grass land is not only particu-
larly benefited by its application but possesses a singu-
lar power of disinfecting or deodorising it for sewage;
water, if passed over a sufficient area of grass land,
will run off, it is said, quite clear and without either
taste or odour. The process of irrigation is carried on
at Edinburgh, Carlyle, Croydon, and other places
with great advantage to the land, and without any
apparent bad effect upon the health of the people;
but those who are unfortunate enough to live in the
neighborhood of the words find their proximity to the
thing but agreeable. Irrigation has been in operation
on a large scale in the neighborhood of Edinburgh
for two centuries, but the great expense of thus dealing
with sewage would prohibit our attempting to dispose
of it in that way here.

If the water-closet system were adopted, and the
mouth of the main sewer were at the Arrow Rock,
and the sewage could be pumped or allowed to pass
into the ebb-tide, it would rid us of the danger
of its giving off its poisonous gases on the Mudflat,
but whether, if we possessed the means, this is the
best or wisest way of disposing of it, I am inclined to
doubt, for it is far too valuable to the farmer and