What is the distance from the metropolis at which refuse is used?—The expense of cartage of course increases with the distance. The average extent of use of it as deposit does not exceed three miles from the Post-office district in the city of London. Some night-soil has been dried, packed up in the returned sugar hogsheads, and sent to the West Indies for use as manure.
Is it not conveyed away from London by canal?—We do not at present, but it might be. There is a penalty in the local Act of 5l., for depositing it on the wharf.
Cannot you convey such manure by railway?—No, there is no mode of conveyance provided. The charge, I believe, is a halfpenny per mile, but that is for the use of the rails only; and the company do not favour the transit of manure, and the farmer or contractor who would convey it must provide engines for himself, which again would not pay. Night soil has not yet been used systematically, and there are no places provided for its reception.
Might not the refuse be disposed of to better advantage than it now is?—The refuse of a great portion of the metropolis might be disposed of to immense advantage, but it must be by operations on a scale beyond the power of private capitalists. The sweepings of the paved streets is good as manure: on grassland it is nearly equal to horse-dung; but it contains so much seed that it scarcely does on ploughed land for immediate use. It produces great quantities of herbage; every year, however, it improves, because the weed is lost from it and the manure is left. When the streets are dry, and it will pay for transit, we sell a few loads. The sweepings from the Macadamized roads consist so much of granite that it is of very little use indeed; and in general the street-sweepings are mixed up with other manure for sale.
3.—Evidence of Mr. John Treble, Contractor for Cleansing, as to the Obstacles to Cleansing, and the Conversion of the Refuse of the Metropolis to Productive Uses.
You have been engaged in the cleansing of the metropolis, have you not?—Yes; I have been engaged, and my father before me, in the general cartage of materials, and also in extensive business as a nightman, but I have now retired from business.
What is the usual expense of emptying cesspools?—The full price to respectable private houses is 15s. per load, but the contract price is about 10s. per load. The period of emptying is dependent on whether there is any drainage from the cesspool, or whether there are any land-springs. Some would require to be emptied twice or three times a-year, whilst others would go two or three years without being filled. About 1l. per annum per tenement would perhaps be the expense one with another.
Where the cesspools are relieved, is not the ground about saturated?—Yes, it is; in digging the foundations of old houses for new buildings, the earth is found to be saturated. We have frequently to empty one person’s place because it is found that the soil has penetrated through to the neighbours’ houses.
Does not this moisture affect the condition of the house?—Yes, and it would be good economy for the sake of the house, and keeping a dry foundation, to have water-closets and good drainage from the house to the sewers.
By having the water-closets, the expense of the removal of the soil, annually or otherwise, would be saved?—Yes; and the expense of the dearest water-closets bears no proportion to the annual expense of cleansing, though water-closets I think might be constructed at a less expense, on a more simple plan, than they now are. They might be constructed on a principle to receive the rain-water and all the liquid refuse from the houses, which would increase the cleansing.