Sepl.
'THE report of Mr, C. H. God-Commissioner of Public on the result of his investigations into the sewage systems of India and Burma must be our apology for again reverting to this subject. If excuse for doing so were at all necessary, which we do not for & moment admit, it would lie in the fact that with the present increase of flush da ries in the business district of the International Settlement, the day when the ratepayers will have to consider the whole question of sewage disposal is rapidly drawing near. Its importance may be gathered from the fact that there are no fewer than 58 installations in the eastern portion of the Central District, with 1,051 sins, while the total number of basins in the whole of the Settlement has increased by at least 1,000 during the past two years. These are at present connected with cesspools, which have to be emptied at no longer periods than every three days. Satisfactory though this method may be for the present, it certainly has no lasting virtue to commend it any more than has removal by the nocturnal—coolie. Both are cumbersome, neither are healthful and neither-are any particular) credit to so modern 'a city as Shanghai, We take it that, later on, concrete proposals will be put before the ratepayers for adoption of a modern system such as Mr. Godfrey has outlined, and with the installation of a modern sewerage system it may be safely said that the Municipal Council will have done practically all that it can in the nature of construction work for the safeguarding of the health of the Settlement and a practice which has, for some time past, been a standing reproach to the place will have given way to up-to-date methods such as are being adopted in the best cities of the world.
It is not, as we understand present intention, the scheme of the authorities to install a water carriage system to every house in the Settlement, but when the scheme is taken to its ultimate conclusion the night-soil coolie, his buckets, carts and junks will, as far as foreign houses are concerned, have gone the way of all effete institutions. The cesspool also will disappear and the present installations and those to come will be connected to 2 system of sewering underground by which sewage will be conveyed to one or more stations where it will be treated by the activated sludge process. The substantial nynber of Chinese latrines, fly infected as they now are, will also be connected with the system direct, while the collection from houses will be deposited in dumps connected with the sewers all for treatment by this latest and apparently most efficient method of dealing with the matter. An inspection of the experimental station at Yangtszepoo recently served to confirm the opinion that the activated sludge process was the best method for Shanghai to adopt in dealing with the question. Without going into any long description of the process, it might be stated that treatment by what amounts to the passage of minute bubbles of air through the sewage for some hours reduces it to sludge suspended in a solution which has been deprived of its putrescible content by the action of the air. This work is done in tanks from which no unpleasant odour of any kind emanates during the process, and, after settling, the liquid can be drawn off and discharged into the Huangpu without any danger whatsoever to the water supply of the place, and the sludge can be used for the purpose of manure, functioning as which it has been already shown to give excellent results. Experimental plant for the production of activated sludge has been in operation for some considerable time past, and the results obtained so far have been particularly gratifying, sufficiently so to lead to the conviction that the perfected method is wholly desirable for Shanghai.
It is with these facts in. view that Mr, Godfrey's report is so interesting. It covers to a certain extent the minutiae of the problem, and has really to be read together with the other reports which he has issued on the subject. A perusal of the writings on the question from the standpoint of Shanghai clearly shows that whatever scheme is eventually placed before the ratepayers will ihave received the closest attention of the Council, its. servants and such experts as have been' engaged on the subject, and there jean be not the slightest doubt that when the matter reaches the stage of public "discussion the principle will not be at issue but merely the method of bringing into effect a system which has now been accepted as a great necessity. When this sewerage scheme is adopted Shanghai will only be falling into line with important cities all over the world, and the success which has attended the installation of such plants in those places is indication that, once the method is in operation, Shanghai will have no cause to regret the expenses entailed in effecting this improvement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.