A look back at 1958

A look back at 1958

A look back at Thursday February 6th 1958.

In local news...
Pay Rise for Milkmen and Grocery Workers

There was a pay rise for milkman and grocery workers and a shorter working week. For working on New Year's Day milk rounds man in Jersey will receive extra pay. This is included in one of the new agreements under which workers in several more trades in the Island have been granted a 5 shilling wage increase and improved working conditions.

The agreements negotiated between the Federation of Jersey employers and the Transport and General Workers Union are backdated to the 1st of January 1958.

In the dairy trade the increase for male adult workers will bring their rate to 7 pounds 16 shillings for a 48-hour week. New Year's Day, like other bank holidays already recognised, will be paid at time and a half.

The increase for workers in the grocery and provision trade is also of 7 shillings 6 pence bringing the rate for adult male workers to 7 pounds 13 shillings and 9 pence per week

The average working week is reduced from 48 to 46 hours - employers having the option of a 40 hour week during the summer months with a reduction to 44 hours for the remainder of the year.

The maximum rate for drivers in this trade will now be paid at the age of 21 and not at 24 as in the past.

Elderly Woman Knocked Over by Car

An elderly woman was slightly injured yesterday afternoon when it is stated she stepped from the pavement at the corner of Queen Street and Halkett Place into the path of a car by which she was knocked over.

The woman, Mrs M. Temple of Glenwood, Close du Clement, St Peter, suffered bruising to the lower part of her right leg and a sprained wrist. The car concerned was driven by a Mr B Buard of St. Saviour who, at Mrs Temple’s request, afterwards drove her to the JMT Terminus, Caledonia place, for her to return home by bus.

PC E Lidster investigated.

Inquest on for former Nigerian Official

The inquest on 87 year old Mr George Frederick Price, a retired treasurer of the Nigerian government, who fell in his bedroom at his home the Sheilling, St Aubin in the early hours of the morning of 25th January and who died at the general hospital last Monday evening was adjourned.

And in world news...

Britain in good heart. The Prime Minister Mr Harold Macmillan told Australian industrial leaders here today that sterling was strong and British industry in good heart. And he urged them to make conditions in Australia attractive for British Investments.

Wellington

Sir Edmund Hillary stood by today at Scott Base McMurdo Sound to fly to Depot 700 where Dr Vivian Fuchs trans-Antarctic party were expected to arrive at around 12 on their way from the South Pole. Hillary will accompany Dr Fuchs’ party on the final 700 mile journey from Depot 700 to Scott Base.

Deputy Farley paints grim picture of beach pollution

Some bonus history (not in my regular Friday slot) from the JEP of 1958, a time when St Brelade’s Bay has raw sewage being discharged onto its sands and sea, which is a far cry from the present, where it is one of the best beaches and cleanest in the British Isles. 

It should be noted that contrary to some remarks made by one parishioner, raw sewage is not discharged onto any Island beach, including St Aubin’s Bay. Some treated and bacteria free water is sent into the sea, but there is no raw sewage being released. For further details of the process, see:
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2019/04/what-happens-at-sewage-treatment-works.html

Deputy Farley paints grim picture of beach pollution
Is tourism publicity honest he asks?
February 6, 1958

When the States met this morning the discussion of the progress report of the sewerage board was continued Part 4 of which was started on Tuesday.

Proposing the adoption of this section, Deputy Farley spoke at considerable length in support of the board's request to be allowed to proceed with the Trunk sewer from St Brelade’s Bay to St Aubin this summer, the construction of the Trunk sewer from Don bridge in the spring of next year and the construction of branch sewers in the Pont Marquet, Red Houses, Airport and Route de Tabor areas in the autumn of next year.

In the report the board also reminded the house that all the necessary documents for the construction of the Dyke-Le Croc section of the Eastern trunk sewer were ready and tenders could be called for without delay.

Deputy Farley said that it was clearly his duty to tell the house why the St Brelade’s Bay work should be treated as of extreme urgency. On Tuesday last the house had the advantage of hearing the opinion expressed by the only member qualified to speak on it on the danger to public health which existed in the bay and he hoped that this morning Senator Avarne would elaborate on the brief statement he had then made for the Senator was far better qualified to speak of the danger to health than he himself was.

From the Civil Engineering point of view he could explain to the house that at present there were two outfall sewers in the Bay. One served St Brelade’s Bay hotel only and discharged at LWST (Low Water Slack Tide) that sounded far enough away but in fact it was a point 100 yards from and in line with the end of the jetty. The other one which dealt with all the sewage from the rest of the Bay discharged above LWST at a point almost opposite Hotel l'Horizon. The result was that at low water the sewage was spent over that portion of the beach and at anytime in the summer members could see, as he had seen, children walking about in crude sewage as it lay on the beach.

There was no need for him to stress how objectionable this was to eye and nose but far more serious was the danger from bacteria. Owing to the shape of the Bay as the tide rose the sewage was carried further up the beach and spread over a wider area. Some very little in point of fact was carried out by the falling tide unless the wind was contrary but the greater part remained for several tides either on the beach itself or in shallow water just off the beach where it was a danger to Bathers.

He held in his hand the tourism committee’s new booklet in which the Bay of St Brelade was described in almost lyrical language. There was a photograph of people on the beach and it must be through the art of the photographer that the outfall was not shown! But it was there amongst those people on the beach.

This was not the time to congratulate the tourism committee on this exceptionally produced booklet but money was never the less being spent on advertising the island in many ways - with a flamboyant display in Piccadilly and in other ways. But he queried was it honest to go on doing that knowing that these people who came here were being encouraged to use beaches where considerable danger to public health existed?

Turning to the question of the drainage of the higher land in St Brelade the speaker said that in the Quennevais and Pont Marquet areas the public health committee had in its wisdom stopped further building on the advice of the experts who held that a danger to public health existed there through insufficient soakaways. But in St Brelade's Bay the same committee had in their wisdom made no such restrictions and allowed almost unrestricted building! 

He had no figures but he believed he was correct in claiming that visitor accommodation in the bay had increased by 20 to 25 in the past 2 years and that at a time when the beach was already the most dangerous from the public health point of view in the Island. 

He did not altogether blame the public health committee which had reason to believe the bay would be drained as the board was proposing now and that it would have been wrong for the house to decide otherwise the board was asking for approval of this scheme so they could go out to tender after the next supply day April 10th.