Drainage and Fever.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 4324, 25 March 1884, Page 2

Drainage and Fever.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—By a paragraph in your, issue of last evcn~ ing, public attention is callod to a subject whichl I would bo ull the better fo;> a little ventilation. I allude to the cases of typhoid fever and the <> drainage question. Tncre has boon a lot said lately about tho cases of infectious disease' which seemed to. be multiplying among the Maoris oC tho North, and one correspondent reproached Kuropeans with having taught tho a natives bad habits, without having imparted any information whatever in regard to sanitary science. I nm afraid, sir, in Unit caso it would be an instance of the " blind leading the blind." You ask mo why. I answer, go with me into homes in our own town, which during thelsstfev months have been visited by death, and listen to tho sorrow-strickon mother as she tells you that a "healthier child was never born," and that it was " gone" directly. Ask your luedlo&t man—as I did aftor being a victim to a like beroavoment—what is the meaning of all this-/ and ho will tell you that it is an opldcmic which goes about among young children in the summor time, consequent to a large extent on the Impure state of tho atmosphore, caused by bad drainage. Lota of people build or rent houses out of town in order that they may have a chance, as they think, of getting a little fresh air. But to how many cases, in doing so, do they leapl "out of tho frying-pan into the flteT I ask anyone to go a little way along the Arch HillRoad, and eeo what they will tee, or rather I should say, smell what they would smell there i for a great longth along tho eido of the road is * deep gully, which, after afow dry days, is partly filled with a seething mass of corruption, from which arises ellluvia almost unbearable, and this, sir, under tho vory nose of our City Knginoer. Butthere will be some ready to eayJ " Yob, but this is outside the city, and does not : concern us." I answor that it would not bei , difficult to find instances as glaring almost in tho heart of the city; for you will flrid that property owners, following in the) wake of an indolent or ignorant City Council, think they havo dono all that is . '.; required of them if they conduct their refuse m water from the sink at the roar of tho h0tu0...-.".. into tho gutter along the street, and thero It is. £ sent forth a messenger of disease and death asif passes by ninny a door. It waß my misfortune, . shall I say, to como from one of the best regulated towns in the North of England, so far as ; sanitary matters are concerned, where streets wore formed and sewered before people built along thorn, and before a man could obtain per- . mission to erect a dwolling he had to show on | his plan tho connections with tho main sewer in the street, and bo provided with patent traps insido his house. Horo I turn my eyes to that boautiful Surrey Hills Estate, and s«o ; buildings springing up like mushrooms all over the place, but what sort of sanitary provision havo thoy? Why, absolutely none; and it things proceed as they have begun, that lovoly landscape breathing health and vigour and, blessing all around, will bo converted into s vory hotbed of disease. I Bhould imagine, sir, that there is not in all tho world a city so highly . favoured as ours, in being bleßsed with sack natural facilities for drainage ;nndyetourvery : blessings will prove our ourso if wo allow tow • spirit of neglect to overcome us, and do not uso the gifts so freely bestowed. But, sir,, ,; mine shall not alone be tho position of - tho critic, but also that of tho roformer, ana I. n would conclude this rather protracted epistlobyasugsrostion.andthatis.lwouldbavo . down evory gully such as Groy-stroet andtno . like a very large drain with a good fall. I would havo small ones intersecting every street ann communicating with the large ones, and I would compel every man who builds a house to drain that houso into Iho common sewer. These l would koep wol! flushed from our splendid water supply, and have thorn carried riant omv f into tho stream, Whore the tide, like 6 giganuq scavongor, twice o day would rid us of every vestige of uncleaiiness. We ore spending lots ': of monoy on parks. These, Bir, are luxuries. Let us first havo tho necessities, and. tno luxuries will follow In duo course. ,Which of our city fathers is willing to take this matter up f It would win him laurels, ann, what is better, /tho thanks of evory thinking member of the community. Apologising torso far trespassing on your space, I am, so.,

Pro Bono Pontico.