HH62/2/RENFRE/47

Transcription

[Page] 46

At the end of the year a requisition was in course of preparation
for the constitution of the village of Newton-Mearns, into which it is
proposed to introduce a public water-supply, into a Special Drainage
District, and in consideration of the high death-rate of the village, as
revealed in my analysis of the vital statistics of the ten years, 1881-
90, it will generally be considered that it is full time something
substantial were done to improve the sanitary condition of the village.
In the course of the summer I was required to report upon the condi-
tion of the drainage of the Village of Lochwinnoch, the recent introduc-
tion of a public water-supply having brought matters in that respect
to a crisis. After going fully into the question, I had no alternative
but to report that a drainage scheme was urgently required. A re-
quisition from the inhabitants was presented to the District Com-
mittee, and a resolution was adopted constituting the area already
defined as a Water-supply District, a Special Drainage District, sub-
ject to the approval of the Standing Joint Committee to the neces-
sary works being proceeded with. The Standing Joint Committee,
however, in consideration that all the available rating power within
the area had been hypothecated for the purposes of a water-supply,
declined to sanction the prosecution of any works for sewerage pur-
poses, the money for which would have had to be provided from the
general rate of the District. Matters are, therefore, at a deadlock in
the meantime.
Fortune was more propitious in the case of Inverkip. As the
result of a careful and minute inspection of the condition of affairs in
the village in company with Mr. Murray, the County Sanitary
Inspector, I felt bound to advise the District Committee that the
drainage was extremely defective, and that the only efficient remedy
lay through the formation of a Special Drainage District, and Mr.
Murray prepared an approximate estimate of the cost. Mainly on
the initiative of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, who kindly interested
himself personally in the matter, the village was formed into a
Special Drainage District, and Mr. Wilson, C.E., Greenock, was in-
structed to prepare a scheme for the sewerage of the village.
The existing (feuars') main-sewer in the village of Nitshill being in
a very unsatisfactory condition, towards the close of the year I ap-
proached the representatives of Sir John Stirling-Maxwell with a
view to ascertaining upon what terms the sewer laid down by them,
along the main street of the village, might be transferred to the Local
Authority. The sewer is well laid, and of sufficient size to meet the

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requirements of the village, and I venture to hope that further
negotiations, if taken up by the District Committee, may lead to an
agreement satisfactory to both parties.
The village of Kilbarchan was, on the requisition of the inhabi-
tants, constituted a Special Drainage District by the same resolution
which constituted it a Special Water Supply District. That being
the case, it is unnecessary for me to say anything with respect to the
existing condition of affairs. No definite scheme has yet been evolved,
but the natural outlet for the sewage of the village is into the Black
Cart. It is proposed to acquire a piece of land upon the steep
declivity towards the river, upon which to establish now, or subse-
quently, precipitation and filtration works for the treatment of the
sewage. It will ultimately have to be considered whether it will be
more economical to establish precipitation-works at this point, or
whether the sewage should be carried in a pipe, along the course of
the river, to a junction with the intercepting sewer - which it will
sooner or later be necessary for the authorities of the Burgh of John-
stone to construct - and dealt with in common with the sewage of
Johnstone.
I may, at this point, interject the observation that in all the
Drainage Schemes under consideration, I have kept steadily in view
the necessity of arranging things so that when a general scheme for
the purification of the rivers of the county shall come to the front,
the drainage schemes now projected shall fit in with it, and that if
possible no money shall be thrown away in constructing sewers which
it will subsequently be found necessary to disuse. The circumstances
of the case at Kilbarchan I have just described. At Clarkston I was
desirous that an old quarry should be acquired with a view to meet-
ing the contingencies of the future, but it was considered probable
that the most economical arrangement there, when the time came,
would be to carry the sewage of Busby, at a sufficiently high level,
in a pipe along the course of the Cart, to join the sewage from Clark-
ston, and from houses likely to be built further down the course of
the stream, to a common precipitating station. At Eaglesham and
Mearns the sewage of the villages could be disposed of by irrigation.
At Inverkip the sewage will fall into the sea, and will not require
treatment. At Lochwinnoch the problem, when it arises, will be
most difficult of solution. From the general position and low level
of the village, irrigation is out of the question, and it is a narrow
question of levels whether a system of precipitation and filtration
could be carried out without pumping.