RIVERS POLLUTION.
255
difficulty in regard to River Boards would be the cost of prosecuting those
who contaminated their streams ; hence the Royal Commission urged upon Mr.
Burns the appointment of a central body, which should act in several capacities.
The first duty of the central body would be to consider the catchment areas for
water, and arrange for some complete scheme whereby the whole country should
be amply supplied. This Central Board should also have judicial powers
and act as a final court of appeal. As such a Board could have the experience of
all kinds of experts, its decision should be quite as good, if not better, than the
decision of a Judge in Court, and far less costly. Then the River Boards,
who might at times be inclined to shirk their duties, should be subjected
to periodical inspection by the Central Authority. It might be possible for the
Central Authority to carry on the work the Royal Commission were investigating.
Then there was the question as to whether they should set up a standard
of purity for their stream, and the answer was "Yes" and "No." If the water
was to be for drinking, then a rigorous standard must be adopted. If the river
was in a manufacturing district, and not intended to be drunk, then the standard
might not be so rigorous—in fact, much depended upon local circumstances,
and it would appear that a rough sliding scale with regard to purity would have
to be adopted. Mr. Burns hoped to introduce a Bill upon the subject next
Spring. He (Sir William Ramsay) was assured by Mr. Walter Long that he
would support such a Bill, and Mr. Balfour would also be favourable. There
was no doubt this was a non-party matter, and that was, perhaps, why it
was difficult to stir up interest in the subject. Incidentally, Sir William Ramsay
mentioned that in the country he was all for a domestic system of sewage
disposal, and if a man had a garden, the sewage should go on the soil.
Dr. J. C. Thresh, Medical Officer for the County of Essex, welcomed the idea
that a Central Board should be created, but asked if it would be powerful enough
to deal with the London County Council—the greatest polluter of the Thames
estuary. He went on to point out the wonderful power of self-purification
which rivers possess, and gave the Roding as an example. Above Loughton the
water was comparatively pure, and people on its banks were content to drink it,
but from Loughton to Wanstead it was little better than an open sewer. Yet
half a mile below Wanstead the water was apparently pure again, because
polluted water or injurious matter was diverted into the sewers. He had no
evidence that people who lived ou the banks of polluted streams in the county
suffered in consequence, but he nevertheless held that all rivers should be kept
sufficiently pure for people to drink the water without fear. People did not
drink polluted water knowingly, but cattle did, yet he had no evidence to show
that the cattle suffered. As to the effect on fish, he was of opinion that they liked
pollution in a mild form. He had many times seen anglers fishing in the neigh-
bourhood of sewage effluents. It was true that fish were occasionally killed by
polluted matter, the reason being that some matter in a certain state of putrefac-
tion absorbed a very large amount of oxygen, on which fish depended, and, that
being eaten up, as it were, by the putrid matter, they were suffocated.
Mr. E. Barnard, M.P., said that he was glad to see the Essex Field Club
taking the lead in this matter, but he thought that progress hinged on finance,
and previous speakers had not alluded to this side of the question. He thought
a Rivers Board would be an excellent thing, but it must be based on an
absolutely fair system.