TYPHOID & DIPTHERIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2482, 24 May 1909, Page 5

TYPHOID & DIPTHERIA.

TO THE EDITOR

SIr ’ T -J Some half doezu years ago I paid a visit to Central Otago after an absence of about a quarter of a century. The growth of all the towns along the route from Queenstown and Milton impressed me favorably, but I wondered that the men who had evolved the modern gold-dredge did not also evolve some system of sanitation suited to their growing towns, and the wonder to me since then is that you have so few cases of filth diseases (for such are diptheria and typhoid), I went out in the early morning at Clyde to explore and I thought I had never seen a nicer situation for a clean wholesome town; but I had not gone far when I came across all sorts of noisome abominations. Why on earth should it be so? Why should you nob have a town sweet and clean in your back yards as well as in your front streets? There is no earthly reason why the men and women of Central Otago, with their clear, bracing atmosphere and frost and snow should not set an object lesson to the rest of New Zealand. I have been constantly recommending Central Otago as a health resort, but the abominations I witnessed at Clyde and Alexandra (my time was rather short at Cromwell) make me less enthusiastic than I used to be before my last visit. When I lived at Prahran, one of the suburban cities of Melbouruc (population about 50,000) they initiated the double-pan system of earth-closet, and that was certainly a big improvement on anything I have since seen. When the pan was taken out, it was replaced by an empty one that had been thoroughly disinfected. There was another improvement in Ballarat-the great alluvial goldfield of Victoria. In the city of Ballarat (there is also the Borough of Ballarat East) the contractor for the removal of nightsoil had to place a supply of mould once a week in a box in each closet. The mould was ground lignite from local coal, such as you have an abundance of in all parts of Otago and it makes a thorough deodoiisor if applied constantly. If only one town in Central Otago would start on the right track in the matter of sanitafon the others would soon be induced to follow the example. Why not Clyde for first place? If good old Vincent Pyke can look down on you I am sure he would be delighted at a forward move in that direction.

Lover of Central Otago.

Wellington, May 21/00.