The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-14 00:00:00

RIVERS POLLUTION COIILIIISSION.

Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to in-
quire into the pollution of rivers, having presented
three reports—namely, Ist, on the Thames ; 2d, on
the river Lea; and 3d, on the rivers Aire and Cal-
der, the seat of the worsted and woollen trade of
the West Riding of Yorkshire—we learn, from no-
tices issued, commence to-morrow, at Liverpool, an
inquiry into the pollutions of the rivers Mersey,
Irwell, and their tributaries, on which are seated
the great cotton trades and other manufactures.
Liverpool and Birkenhead are ports situate on the
river Mersey, near to the estuary, washed by tides
regularly, and with so vast a volume of water
as not in themselves either to pollute the river
water to any serious extent or to be sub-
jected to inconvenience from inland river pollu-
tions ; but as the entire sewage from these towns
and their suburbs, from Runcorn to New Brighton
and Formby, including a population approaching to
one million persons, passes from both sides, Lanca-
shire and Cheshire, direct into the river, it is consi-
dered advisable to obtain facts, if even they are for
the most part negative, as to this sewage so dis-
charged causing nuisance injurious to health.
Probably the Commissioners may think it neces-
sary to ascertain at about what point of the
Mere-sea—the old name for the river Mersey—
the vast inland pollutions cease to be observed.
At Runcorn, and at Widnes immediately oppo-
site, and 'at Warrington and St. Helen's,
there are alkali works, soap works, and some
other large manufactories, which pollute the tribe.
tary streams, canals, and also the river Mersey at
this point to a fearful extent. The Sankey Canal
is so polluted by fluids that-iron boats have had to
be abandoned, and limestone at the canal locks has
been removed, and sandstone substituted. A
visitor may see many acres of ground covered with
solid alkali waste, from which the rain washes all
that is soluble, and it is, no doubt, some of this
refuse which causes so much mischief and destruc-
tion. Lord Derby's Act has reduced the nuisance
formerly caused by the gases which were allowed to
escape into the atmosphere; but at present some
form of protection is required for earth and water.
The rivers and their tributaries above Warring-
ton are polluted in such a degree as to be the
cause of nuisance over the entire manufacturing
district—not so much by cleansing, spinning, and
weaving cotton, as by bleaching, printing, dyeing,
paper Making, chemical and other similar works.
Then there is the sewage of the entire population
(upwards of two millions), which is allowed to pass
direct into the streams ; the water of all these
streams, and also of the canals, being required for
power or use of some sort, much of it for steam-
boiler purposes ; and in summer, or at any time
when there has been continuous dry weather, the en-
tire volume of water is heated so as to evaporate and
appear as if boiling. Much as the streams are pol-
luted by fluids, they are probably more abused
by filling in of solids, as furnace ashes,
spent solids from print works, bleach works, dye
works, paper-making, and chemical waste, refuse
from mines, from foundations, and from roads. We
learn this much from the reports already published,
especially from the third report and evidence rela-
tive to the West Riding district of Yorkshire. From
a report published in a Sunderland newspaper, we
also learn that the river Wear is most seriously
damaged for navigation purposes by the filling in
of solids in the tributaries, such as mine refuse,
ashes, &c., the total, it is stated, amounting to hun-
dreds of thousands of tons per annum. The harbour
commissioners at Sunderland consider it absolutely
necessary that better river conservancy should be
established. The law applicable to riparian
ownership is at present either uncertain or ill-
defined. The right to the soil iu the bed of a
stream or river is supposed to belong to
the riparian owners, but there is no recognised
authority, as a conservator, to control such owner
or owners in the use of the banks of any stream, or
in building. The middle line longitudinally is
usually the line of division betwixt opposite ripa-
rian owners ; but if one man builds upon such cen-
tral line a large factory—and the case has happened
in some places—and the opposite owner claimed
and exercised a similar right, the stream must be
effectually blocked, and would then flood all above
such block, or would force a new channel in some
other direction. Again, if a weir is constructed or
the stream is walled and arched over so as to ob-
struct floods, great damage is caused to local pro-
perty. These forms of abuse and injury are com-
mon in manufacturing districts.
It may be truly said, " There is the common law
which may be put in force to restrain such forms of
abuse." No doubt there is that legal power, but
under existing complications it has 'ceased to be
available, or is only capable of an unjust applica-
tion. River abuse, for the most part, begins at the
fountain head of a stream, and is continued down to
the estuary; the active prosecution of individuals or
even of single towns is therefore generally au in-
justice, as the entire community is involved in-
voluntarily in river pollution. The evil has
become national, and requires some form of
Imperial remedy. We do not expect that
the vast trade of this country can be carried on, and
yet that we shall restore our rivers to an absolute
state of purity ; but we do hope that the Rivers
Commission, after pointing out the chief forms of
abuse, will be enabled to suggest some practical,
common sense remedy whereby the chief evils now
endured may be abated, and even with advantage
to trade and ntanufactures. We shall, at all events,
look forward with interest to the Report No. 4 on
the rivers Mersey, Irwell, and Ribble pollutions,
which are chiefly iu Lancashire, the seat of the cot-
ton trade

Births.

CIIAERINGTON—On the 13th inst., the wife of Spencer
Charriugton, Esq., of a daughter.
ROMAINE—On the 12th iast., the wife of W. G. Romaine,
Esq., C. 8., Secretary of the Admiralty, of a daughter.
WHITLOCK—On the 13th inst., at 1, Grove Villas, The
Grove, Clapham-road, the wife of T. Leo Whitlock, of
a son.