37
account of the pollution of the river by these towns as follows: —
"The injury inflicted by the river pollution of these and other towns to the estates of many riparian owners is very great; streams which in the memory of men now living were comparatively pure and well stocked with fish are now black and stinking. The land through which such polluted streams flow is ruined for residential purposes, and is injured and reduced in value. Even for mill purposes the water is so bad as to be considered unfit for manufacturing uses, and other sites are selected, where water can be obtained from canals or by sinking wells. In many instances cattle will not drink the local river water, and farms are depreciated in consequence. Large country houses, which formerly, with their river frontage, rights of fishing, and ornamental gardens, were valued as residences, have been abandoned, or are let merely at farming rents. The cattle plague prevailed to a great extent in the Thorpe Hall meadows below Leeds, and on lands bordering foul rivers in other districts. This fatal disease was considered by the tenants and proprietors to have been aggravated by the foul state of the water and by the tainted atmosphere, caused by river pollutions."
"In some cases the manufacture and dyeing of finer sorts of goods has necessarily been abandoned, and in other cases extension of manufacture is rendered impossible, because there is no additional clean water to be obtained in the district."
And at page 51 the Commissioners point out that
"One great argument for the purification of the rivers up to an available point should not be passed over in closing the consideration of this question. Manufacturers require clean rather than pure water. They cannot get on with water fouled by solid suspended matter."
Having shewn (pages 51 to 53) that the existing laws are practically, for one reason or another, quite insufficient to correct the dreadful evil of the pollution of streams.
