By Isle of Wight Observer
The Isle of Wight Observer published on 17th July, 1858 shows that worries about sewage in the sea are nothing new!
THE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT.
Many of our readers will doubtless recollect that when Mr. Barrow gave his evidence upon the sanitary state of Ryde before Mr. Ranger, one of the Board of Health Inspectors, he described the watercourse from Swanmore to Weeks’ as “an elongated cesspool;” and a few months ago he extolled himself for having abolished numberless cesspits in the town, and he hoped the day was not far distant when every one of them would be abolished. Indeed, the mania of Mr. Barrow has hitherto took the form of a dire crusade against cesspits: — away with all impurity into the sea! Suddenly the mania takes the opposite form, and Mr. Barrow actually recommended on Tuesday last the construction of cesspits in the town, with man-holes, to be periodically cleansed, to intercept the sewage, and prevent its being carried into the sea, as recent experience had proved to the Commissioners that it would not mix with the salt water, and was consequently spread over the shore to the detriment of sea bathing! Can absurdity further go? But what childish simplicity it is to excuse this retrograde movement upon the ground of “recent experience.” That the sea will not hold putrid substances is a fact as old as the hills, and has been noticed by us as long as we can remember; and the modes which Neptune adopts to clean his breast of impurities, whether arising from marine economy or extraneous agency, have been scientifically treated, and the results have been repeatedly published in the magazines. The tide will send all inanimate matter – the more offensive, the more rapidly – ashore, and the reason is obvious enough to a common understanding (not a Commissioner’s). With a knowledge of these things, we protested against the proposed system of drainage before it was adopted by the town; when we were sneeringly asked by a “practical man” where we got our engineering knowledge from? We fearlessly assert that so-called “practical men” are the greatest bane that could possibly be infused into any governing body; and that their mistakes are more numerous and fundamental than those arising from any other class, and the reason is that their prejudices are deeper set. Allowing the eastern sewer to be right in principle, who but “practical men” would ever had committed the abominable stupidity of terminating a 29-inch sewer with an 18-inch pipe? So much for “practical men,” when guided by the “zeal, assiduity, and talent” of others who wish to glorify themselves. From the fact of the recommendation for the construction of cesspits being referred to the Sanitary Committee, we conclude that the eastern sewer is, as we always predicted it would be, another instance of failure! So here is our position, under the combination of “zeal” and “practice:” with powers to borrow £23,000 for water works, and £15,000 for sanitary works, we find the money nearly all spent; a water famine just at hand; the sewage works a failure; and the shore spoiled. We are not surprised that Mr. Barrow’s private and domestic affairs should, under these cheering prospects, require more of his time than heretofore. But who is the “coming man” who is to rectify these enormous failures, with an empty exchequer?