The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-11-04 00:00:00

Amid ennutti Express.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1879.

•
Saint Cecilia and Saint Francesca arc the main
figures in the new stained window in Frampton
Church.

The latest scare i the danger of war between
England and Turkey, the latter being supported by
Russia, while England may hope for the aid of
Austiia and France. The occasion seems to be that
the effete government of the Sultan delays the
promised reforms in Asia Minor, and England will no
longer wait. That Russia should uphokl the Sultan
shows what sort of objects she had in the late war;
but the danger of quarrelling with Russia and Turkey
together is one of the wretched fruits our tricksters
appear to have reaped from their secret engagements
with Russia and with Turkey, whereby they seem to
hare forfeited the confidence of both sides. It is an
agreeable surprise if Austria and ranee will support
England ; but the alliance will not be complete or
effectual without the adhesion of Germany, nor must
the influence of Italy be left out of the account.
Altogether the statements read like the signs of some
other mystification invented by the great sphinx, to
confuse the English electors at the coming election,
which cannot long be delayed.

--
If anything in Dorchester may be supposed to be
done well, it is the task of supplying water to the
houses. An immense well, enormous tanks, and
steam-engines of increased power, are used at consid-
erable expense to provide that sparkling fluid which,
when the supply is not turned off, can be so plentifully
obtained. Now Mr. Shirley I libberd cornea forward
to assert that the roof-area of a house or town may be
made a sufficient source of the purest water, and so
that wells, elevated tanks, and engines may be done
without. Ile argues to this effect—the rainfall in
Landon averages 25 inches, one inch of rain on an acre
ii 22,622 gallons, making allowance for losing the
fast washings tithe roofs and other parts in purification,
etc., so that only one-tenth is reserved perfectly clean,
we have thecisect of 56,030 gallons and more per
acre, for drinking and cooking, besides which a large
Ictity of the other would be available for washing.
calculations are attractive, and we recommend
the subject to experimenters, who may try if we can
save the ever-increasing cost of our waterworks, and
yet get better and wholesomer water than our chalk
strata supply.

Happy people who know no wrong seem to be the
loyal burgesses of the county town, for not even the
shadow of an election opposition was cast across the
brightness of this October. Calm and contented as
Wareham with her Mr. Drax, the model of a success-
ful M.P., was Dorchester with her "old four," and
beyond doubt the Mayor, Mr. Gregory, Dr. Aldridge,
and Mr. Hazel are eminently representative. But,
while no one, not even a cynic, wags his tongue against
these gentlemen, those who have not discarded the
good old maxim " Measures, not men," may desire
asat the Councillors who enjoy the thorough confidence
of their constituents should press on measures to solve
the great questions of health and decency which still
stop the way. The mass of town sewage still pours
into the river Froome, although for years there has ex-
isted in Dorchester a standing example of the means
whereby this is to be prevented. And the Council,
confronted with the necessity for draining the Corn-
wall road district, have recurred to the same old plan,
and propose to increase the nuisance in the face of a
direct injunction to the contrary. It is of course, not
for a moment to be supposed that mere wilfulness
would cause so representative and trusted a body as
the Town Council so to act ; the excuse for the Council,
and probably the actual reason of its incapacity to
deal with the subject, is that the supreme authority in
such matters, the Local Government Board itself, is
but a blind leader of the blind. It has hitherto been
mainly successful in getting great jobs for that privileged
class, the C. E.'s, and with what result their most
costly efforts have been followed, let such places as
Brighton tell, not to come nearer home. That such a
stultification should be attempted as the proposal to
drain Cornwall road in what looks like direct defiance

of the injunction, is perhaps less to be excused in 11
Dorchester than in towns where land cannot lie easily
obtained for gardens. Let but the Local Ito2nl pro-
vide sufficient drainage for the land tittered and surface
water from those parts, and any district which has suf-
ficient garden should have no excuse for adding to thc
troubles of the Local Board, and the annoyance of pro-
prietors near the, oatfall. At Portland and other
places the advisill of the Local Covernment Hoard
have been fain to be content with a very incomplete
clarification" of town refuse, and such is about all
that we hope for from messy operations. These need
not be attempted if encouragement were given to the
use of the natural cleanser, garden earth, and this ought
to be obtainable in abundance at Dorchester, where
the Duchy of Cornwall were so graciously disposed
towards the inhabitants as to devote considerable areas

for houses with gardens. Such garden areas arc not
always utilised where the commonest of common-sense
would teach their use. For instance, in Weymouth
we know of several roods of garden ground which
is every year becoming more impoverished from
insufficient manuring, and is fast getting only
noted for slugs and snails. Vet through a 28-perch
piece of that ground actually passes the refuse-pipe
(sewer) from a row of houses adjoining, and in the
very middle of that pi-den stands the ventilating shaft
from which is disgorged the wiser gas, and through
this hungry garden passes the watertight pipe convey-
ing the refuse to where it is worse than waste. Such
is a salient instance of the absurdity of the usual
drainage plans. And in other towns we feel convinced
that if partial exemption from drainage rates were the
reward of those who can show they practise utilisation
without nuisance, and who only discharge true liquid
into the drains, the necessity for giant and evcr-increas•
tog sewers on one hand and injunctions to stop
their use on the other, would diminish rapidly, to the
great advantage of horticulture and health.