THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
617
This power of using earth several times over, and | for each use 1½ lb. of dry earth. This gives 4,500 lbs.,
of obtaining each time a more valuable manure, has | or two tons, as the daily quantity of earth required
an important economical bearing, which will be seen | for the population. The amount that would accu-
in the course of the report, upon the applicability of | mulate in the closet pits, and which would need to be
the system. | removed about four times a year, would be larger
| than this by the bulk of the stools and of such portion
As regards the agricultural value of the earth com- | of urine as did not evaporate; but, without reckoning
post, I may in this place adduce the following | increase on this score, the quantity of manure pro-
instance, stated to me by Rev. H. Moule:-Four | duced may be reckoned at the same quantity of two
acres on a farm at Fordington were sown with tur- | tons a week.
nips, manure having previously been drilled in. The |
manure to 3 acres was superphosphate, bought at | I assume that, after owners of property have paid
£7 12s. a ton; the manure on the other quarter | the original cost of providing earth closets according
acre was earth compost that had been five times | to the scheme of the local authority, all supply and
through closets, and bought at £3 a ton. The | maintenance of them should be the function of that
manures were used in equal quantity, a hundred- | authority. The cost to owners would vary (1) accord-
weight to each quarter acre. The quarter acre | ing to the adaptability of the existing arrangements,
manured with earth-compost yielded one-third more | and (2) according to the character of the earth
in weight of turnips than an average quarter-acre | arrangements to be required. The latter may either
manured with superphosphate. Sheep were fed on | consist, as at Lancaster, in a single daily application
the turnips, and next year barley was sown over the | of earth to the closets, or much preferably, as at
whole four acres. The barley on the quarter acre | Halton, in an arrangement for the mechanical delivery
stood conspicuously above the other barley, and | of earth after each use of the closet. In this latter
yielded, area for area, in the proportion of four to | case an average outlay for structural alterations and
three over the remainder of the field. Farmers tell | machinery of some £3 or £4 might be required in
Mr. Moule that the advantage of the manure remains | respect of each closet.
three years in the ground. Other instances will be |
The expenses, which, for the efficient management
given in the course of this report. | of the earth closets of such a population, would have
| to be borne by the local authority, consist, first, in an
Earth closets, used singly, either outside or inside | original expenditure of some £250, and in a con-
private houses, have frequently come under my notice, | tinuous weekly expenditure of about £4 15s., as
and have always been found to be free from smell. | follows:-
As to their especial convenience in the sick room, I |
Capital :-
may quote the evidence of the medical officer of the | Drying sheds and furnace
Hitchin Union, where the night commodes of the | Cart and horse
infirmary were, in 1865, replaced by movable earth | Other outlay
closets. Mr. Oswald Foster, the surgeon of the |
Weekly expenses :-
infirmary, informs me that the new closets are quite | Two men's wages, at 16s.
effectual in preventing all smell; that there is no | One boy's wages...
trouble in their working; and that he regards them as | Horse keep
having acted beneficially on the health of the inmates. | Firing, at 1s. 6d. for each ton of
| earth
The general facts, however, about earth closets | Purchase of earth, at 1s. a load
will come out so much more strongly in the subse-
quent accounts of their use in communities, that I |
The two men and boy could perfectly well manage
need not stop to discuss individual instances, except | the collection of earth, its drying and distribution,
to say that, for use inside a house, an arrangement | and the removal of the product, not only for our
for delivering, by some simple mechanism, a proper | village of 1,000 inhabitants, but for a place, if lying
quantity of earth after each use of the closet is to be | compactly, of a hundred or two more.
preferred to the use of a box and scoop. |
The annual cost to the authorities then would be
The arrangements for this purpose which have | (52×£4 15s.) £247, and, with the addition of £13
been patented by Mr. Moule and Mr. Girdlestone | as interest on capital, £260. The removal of ashes
(engineer of the Earth Closet Company), fulfil their | might very well come within this amount; for, if the
object with a minimum of trouble on the part of the | labour of collecting were somewhat increased, there
person using the closet, and are of a simple kind | would be a saving in fuel by the gain of the cinders,
which does not easily get out of order. A hundred | and also a gain (to which little importance, however,
or two of charges can be put into these mechanical | attaches) of dry dust that might, in some circum-
closets, and the receptacle for the mixed earth and | stances, be used with the earth to the closets.
dejections can be either a movable vessel to be |
The quantity of manure got from the earth closets
emptied as often as full, or a pit which needs to be | of the village would each year amount to 730 tons,
emptied only at intervals of several months. | or, from the consideration before advanced, more.
| The cost of production of this will have been 7s. a
THE COST AND CONDITIONS OF USE OF THE EARTH | ton. I do not reckon the value of this material,
SYSTEM IN COMMUNITIES. | which by hypothesis has only once been through the
| closets, at anything like the sum which the experience
I now find myself in a position to state with some | of Halton and of Dorchester school might warrant,
approach to accuracy the way in which the earth | nor even at the price which the Governor of Dorset
system may be worked, as well as its approximate | County Gaol gets for it. But taking it as worth only
cost and produce. I need not here consider the case | 10s. a ton, there is in the £365 of income an ample
of public institutions, or of very small villages, as the | excess over expenses to provide for repayment of
instances quoted sufficiently illustrate the operation | capital, for cost of repairs, and for a profit in addition.
of the system there. But, for my present purpose, | If this profit were applied to the engagement of a
I begin with the case of a village population of 1,000 |
persons already provided with the ordinary arrange- | This is nearly half as much again as the Halton scale of
ment of outside privies and cesspools. People making | supply, but at Halton much urine does not enter the closets.
use of closets as receptacles for all stools and urine | is more than double the quantity supplied to such a
from every inhabitant, may be taken to use them on | population, at the Lancaster rate; but at Lancaster more than
an average three times a day each,* and to require | half the urine is kept out of the closets, and yet the quantity of

• Closets used in the ordinary way, for stools and part of | earth supplied is barely sufficient.
  urine only, would not be so often visited. Less than two visits
  daily by the average person would be estimated for such use.