Wellington Independent THURSDAY, 10th APRIL.

A corporation lias been described as something which has neither a body to be kicked nor a soul to be damned. If it were otherwise the Corporation of the Mayor and Burgesses of Wellington would stand a fair chance of being both thoroughly well kicked and as thoroughly damned. The first duty of such a body as the City Council should be the preservation of the health of the public. We can afford very well to dispense with superfluous luxuries, but we cannot afford to be poisoned. Unfortunately, however, the latter condition is being very practically fulfilled in Wellington. Always pre-eminent for stinks, the so-called Empire City is fast becoming a Golgotha, entirely due to the miserable inactivity of those whose duty it is to protect the lives of the citizens. The City Council meets week after week, and a great deal of pretence of business is made, but the inhabitants of the city have the uncomfortable consolation that their Mayor and councillors neglect their first duty. It is almost twelve months since that the City Council went so far as to recognise that drainage was a necessary thing, yet the city remains at the present moment as uhdrained as ever. There has never been exemplified any realization of the necessity for establishing a thorough sanitary system in Wellington. There has been much talk about it, but nothing has been done, although every week deaths occur which are beyond doubt traceable to the absence of those precautions which science has proved to be effectual as against many of the fatal epidemics which periodically attack centres of population. The City Council may urge in extenuation that they could not provide a thorough system of drainage until the waterworks are completed, and this may be \ true. But there are many directions in which sanitary action could be taken, but which have been criminally neglected. It is sufficient for anyone to walk along any of the principal thoroughfares of the city to be able to understand the origin of the sickness which is now so prevalent. Esery drain grating is simply a channel of miaama. After sundown, when evaporation is greatest, the foul aud fetid fumes which are discharged from every opening to the drains is simply overpowering. Surely the least that the City Council could do is to provide traps so as to prevent the noxious effluvium from contaminating the outer air. Nature is very bountiful to Wellington. We are seldom without a good healthy breeze from one quarter or another — indeed, it muy be fairly said that it is entirely due to the traditional winds of Wellington that the city is preserved from absolute pestilence. It is well known that at this moment the worst form of typhoid fever is prevalent in the city. Several lives have been lost from this cause already, and there is a strong probability that many others will follow. Now, if there is on.' thing above another which modern science has been able to establish it is that zymotic diseases, such as typhus fever and typhoid disorders generally, are entirely traceable to the neglect ol sanitary precautions. If the City Council cannot yet undertake a thorough system of drainage, they can, at least, mitigate the evils consequent upon the absence of such a system. They can

and ought to take measures for ensuring the regular and constant clearance of the closets within the city. This, of itself, would be a very considerable step, for anyone who knows anything about the average state of the back premises of the city knows that it is simply disgraceful. In various parts of the town are to be seen filthy streams of pollution reeking in the sun and breeding disease around them. We could indicate several instances which are the subject of common complaint, but no one seems to have the courage to expose the nuisances, and still less has the City Council the courage to remove them. We would suggest that as one step which the City Council might take, that they should make arrangements for the cleansing of outhouses at regular periods, charging each householder a moderate sum for so doing. At present this scavenging work is left in the hands of private persons who, although they charge pretty highly for their work, attend to it just as it suits them and very often leave it undone altogether. What is required and and what should be done is that a regular house-to-house inspection should be made ; the City Council should establish means for the 1 regular clearance of outhouses, and we are sure that the ratepayers would gladly pay the cost. If something of the kind, is not done speedily the metropolis of the colony will become a place to be avoided.