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165
Recalling the dry spring and summer of 1853-54 when 230 people'died of
scarlet fever , the editorial warned that a similar epidemic could be
expected if the same weather conditions occurred.
Drainage was the
first essential ;
the only sewers at present in existnce were those which
continued the natural water courses beneath streets and hous es ;
none
showed constructive ski ll; -gg-shaped, glazed stoneware sewers were
necessary - up to the present time not one of these was to be found in
Hobart Town.
Our sewers at present are in fact but elongated cesspools
of the most noxious character to the health of the citizens .
The gases engendered there have free exit into our streets
and houses, for no doors or locks can exclude so subtle and
stealthy an enemy. We do not know one gully hole in the city
provided with a st ench trap . House drainage, so essential to
cleanliness, comfort and health, is so rare that it may be
said not to exist.
Tub ular pipes of glazed earthenware for hous e drainage water closets
instead of the "disgusting privies", and a constant supply of water to
every house at high pressure were recommended .
But the town creek in its present ate was the worst enemy of
all .
With words which quivered with disgust and accusation the
editorial described the Rivulet in 1856:
Of all existig nuisances inimical to the public health,
the rivulet or town creek in its present state is the
greatest. Nature has done much to fit it for the main
sewer - the 'cloaca maxima' of a great city, by which all
waste water and offensive and deleterious matter might be
quietly and easily got rid of and in the deep ocean be
buried. Self-interest, ignorance and folly have done
much to prevent so desirable a result . Its channel has
been obstructed, and depositing beds of the most noxious
and disgusting matters , provided in the very midst of us .
The contents of privi es, dead cats , dogs, fish offal, tan
yard refuse , drainage of stables , cow houses , pigstyes ,
and- all sorts of vegetable garbage, combined with surface
mud, contribute their quota to the horrible mass . From
this worse than witch's cauldron the elements of disease
are constantly distilling and with every puff of wind are
disseminated far and wide .
From the Fema _
le Factory to the Gas Works , the Rivulet was an ab omination -
the masses of filth arrested by thP boulder shores ;
the wide and deep
bed of mud saturated with the refuse of the slaughter house near
Macquarie Street Bri_dge;
and, above all , the dams erected across the
who le width of the stream above Harington and Barrack Street Bridges .
When it came to the dams, one of whi ch had no slui ce, with mud flush to