DEATH IN THE MILKPAIL.

Colonist, Volume XXV, Issue 2925, 5 August 1881, Page 3

DEATH IN THE MILKPAIL.

(From the^ Wellington Evening Post). The telegrams which we have published from' Auckland and Christchurch regarding the revelations made at thoße places, referring to filthy and infected dairies, will probably create a feeling of insecurity akin to horror in the mind of every householder. Anything more shocking than the horrible case of criminal recklessness on the part of the dairyman rsferr'ed to at Christchurch it is almost impossible to con > ceive. One of the health officers entered the house of a person supplying milk to the city, and not only found scarlet tever on the premises, but actually discovered an open pan of milk, intended -to be sold to the public, under a bed on wbicb a sick child was lying! We are not sure whether it would .not have been less reprehensible, on the part of the milk-seller in question, had he deliberately placed a quantity, of strychnine or-arsenic in his milk-pall before starting'oil his daily rounds. In. that case the customers would possibly _ have died a speedy death, whereas in'the case of Bcarlei fever.or typhoid germs being distributed 'broadcast,' prolonged,'' Buffering, attended ultimately by an equally fatal result, or by a constitution 'shattered for life, would in all probability be. the inevitable 'consequence of* such - mad' add. xrimiaaUrecklesinesa. .< Th&t. thi a

,\8 no imaginary danger,'is unfortii 'nately amply evident from' what has actually occurred at, Chriatchurch. As far back as the 21st July, the able medical officer of the Christchurch Board of Health, Dr Ned will, reported that no fewer than forty-two cases ol typhoid fever had occurred, three;oi which .had up to that date provf.d fatal. Of.these there were ''thirtyfive cases in which the milk was procured from the same dairy"—a fact which sufficiently shows in itself the source of the disease. We consider ! that a very grave responsibility rests upon the Government in the matter. The Christchurch Health Board has emphatically drawn iheir attention to the fact that the powers conferred by the Public Health Act are quite inadequate, and has implored the Ministry in this strongeat terms to bring in a Bill tbis session to enable local bodies to cope with this grave public peril. The matter is' of the greatest urgency, and we hope, this will -be done at once. Surely both sides of the House will agree io.suspend their miserable, petty bickerings, and squabbles oyer questions of no vital importance to the community, in Order that such a matter of life and death may be.dealt with promptly and efficiently. I£ they do not, the blood of numbers slaughtered by typhoid and other preyentible diseases will be upon their heads, and legislators who disregard the health of the people— the supreme law—to indulge in wrangling, recrimination and pettifogging law-making, will earn the imprecations of a justly indignant public.