The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1486, 14 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1874.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wronff liiat neeiis resistaace, s'or the failure in the clictunoe, LaA too srood that m can do.

As will be seen from our Southern Telegrams the malady of measles is raging in Otago. The mention of this disease will be the mention of an unknown thing to many in Auckland, but to some it will bring up sorrowful memories of many a flower of promise blighted and withered in days gone by, and in distant lands. It cannot hitherto be regarded as a colonial disease, and the Registrar of Deaths in Auckland informs us that he has never, so far as he recollects in a long official experience, registered a single case of " measles. " But it is quite clear that there is nothing in the colonial atmosphere antagonistic to the spread of this disease, and a very virulent type of it has now established a footing in New Zealand. Every one that has come from the old country knows, that there it is endemic, and that it is regarded aa next to inevitable that every child, or if not in childhood, at least in youth or manhood, should have measles. In fact it is regarded like whooping-cough as one of those infantile diseases that may as well be endured one time as auother, and the sooner the better. Its advent to a family, notwithstanding, is regarded with considerable distress, for almost invariably it passes through every member, and but too often when it goes away it has left some "vacant chair." There are some diseases of European introduction that assume a very mild form in the colonies, but this one appears to have brought with it all its old virulence, and tho deserted schools in Tokomairiro and Balclutha show that its appearance and progress have caused considerable dismay. It is not for tho purpose of alarm thai; we draw attention to tho subject, but in order that the disease may be watched, and thsjfc precautions miy bo taken to delay, if not to prevent its advent into this city. We may rest assured that when once here it will stay here, and not only will it be likely to affect all our children, none of whom born and resident in Auckland have had experience of it, but it will become permanently recognised in our statistics of sickness and mortality.

The citizens of Auckland may look abroad on nature smiling in the sunshine to-day, and particularly upon the works effected by the City Council, with more than ordinary complacency. The general rate account of the'j city is free from the incubus of debt which has rested'on it to a greater or less extent for years, nut was wiped off by cheque paid in to-day, and the city, so far, is free. The amount necessary to attain this very desirable end, has been met by the loan of £20,000 raised upon city endowments, which was wholly taken up by private citizens at £90, bearing six per cent, interest, and in this way the interest is retained to the city, while the principal goes, or has gone, to improve our streets. The great value of endowments reserved by the Government at a time when land is very low in price could not have received better illustration than that conveyed in the above announcement. When the unevenness of the city site and consequent difficulties and cost necessary in constructing good streets are considered, it is creditable to our city management that so much should have been done with, comparatively speaking, such a small debt to the inhabitants of the city. Ratepayers will always grumble, and there is, perhaps, in this principle of the British character the great safetyguard against Tamanny jobbery, but on the whole we have reason to be satisfied with the management of our city affairs in the past, and especially in the present. Mistakes have no doubt occurred and will arise in the future, which may call for public disapproval, but withal our Corporation and its management will now compare very favourably with that of any other colonial city. In future years when the city endowments again fall into the hands of the Corporation, the Auckland municipality will be a wealthy one.