UPSIDE DOWN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 2 November 1907, Page 9

UPSIDE DOWN.

THE PEOPLE'S HEALTH. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? AN ANOMALOUS ACT. Very typical of Parliament's attitude towards the public health, was the debats not long ago about whether the i police or the Education Department's officers were the more competent to tako charge of babies. There was much academical discussion about infants, but in the end, shrewd critics say, there was little done 10 solve the problem of infant mortality. Men talked much ; they ■went into ancient and modern history, and the baby kept on crying. One commentator states that the Government docs not seem to know that, the house of heaith requires a foundation stone. There is a tendency to con- , struct an elaborate roof, but where are the floor and tho walls? During March the Post published three articles, plainly revealing the anomalies of the Public Health Act. The absurdities are still there. They have been frequently commended to the notice of Parliament, but Parliament, it is contended, is still prone to cling to its adage — '"The public health is nobody's health." Just as a corporation is supposed to have no soul, the nation has no body worth a care. , DANGEROUS INFECTIOUS DISEASES. By sections 16 to 25 of . the Public Health' Act, 1900, the depaitment is given power to cope with "dangerous infectious diseases," but its jurisdiction is limited to rtiosc gazetted, which include only leprosy, small-pox, and bubonic plague. There must be a dangerous disease in the colony before the department has power to take any special precautions. The deadly bacillus must be on the war-path before the department is authorised to impede its progress. What would people say if police were powerless to interfere with a murderer before he had half-complet-ed the cutting of a throat ? Measles is not a "'notifiable disease." The health authorities "may get to know about an outbreak, but not officially. It is contended that measles should be placed on the list, and also diarrhoea. An epidemic of diarrhoea may be very important as an indication that sanitary matters require attention. DEATHS. Death statistics should be compiled in such a way as to give the health authorities exact information about the localities where an iucreased mortality has taken place. Under the present system, the general death-rate for the Wellington province, for example, is practically worthless. The Act allows 31 days as the period ■within -which death may be registered. ! The New Plymouth Borough Council j had before it recently a peculiar case. A i consumptive person died in a house j the building was not disinfected ; goods were removed and sold by public auction. No unfortunate incident of this kind could happen if the law provided that the registration of death must take place before the body is buried. With such a regulation, the house at New Plymouth would have been disinfected within a reasonable time after the death. Under the English law, registration must be done within five days. IMPURE WATER. The Act is too weak to prevent the pollutibn of rivers, watercourses, open ditches or drains. Under certain circumstances the local authorities may be compelled to abate nuisances, but if a borough has no bylaw on the subject, and i? the stream in question does not flow through a borough, or does not form part of the water supply of the district, no one has any power to stop , contamination. A few days ago the public health authorities discovered that water drawn by inhabitants at Shannon from their shallow wells — dug near places where rubbish, garbage, and filth had been buried — was tainted, but they had no ! power to say that the water could not be • used for drinking. The Act* does not J insist that supplies of -water for human consumption must be above suspicion. INSANITARY TIMBER. A portion of the Act covering insanitary buildings is distinctly Gilbertian. Section 2 gives a District Health officer authority to order structi ural alterations or additions to a i 1 house, but practically the only way left 1 open to the officer for effecting the. reform is by condemning the building. • In the absence of a by-law the depart- I ment has no power to forbid the use of decayed, rotten, or dirty timber vmless it comes from a house which has already been condemned. Hence insanitary materials can sometimes be put ! into a dwelling-house without hindr- ' auee. A building can be erected with unwholesome material, and the departmental officer cannot check tho operation till it is completed. Then he is at .liberty to put the ban upon the i whole structure, -but this is a difficult matter to effect. Obviously, an ounceof mild prevention is better than a ton of drastic ■ cure. Why cannot the department have a veto <rv« aii timber unfit for building purposes? THE CLASH OF AUTHORITIES. "Has there ever been a single case where a Health Department officer's dictum has been enforced in tho face of the local authority's opposition?" was a question asked last March, and is put again. What power has the department over local authorities? In j theory it has some, but in practice very I little.' In the case of nuisances 3 de- ! partmental officer can take action if the j local authority makes default, but whab | constitutes making default? So long ab the local body keeps promising to do the necessary work, it is difficult for the department to proceed. Genor- j ally the local authority goes its own « ay unhampered. Then comes the overlapping of inspex- ' tion, of which Wellington has had sudi a sad experience in the domain of milk. REMEDIES. - It was argued previously in The Post that Xew Zealand could sidvantageously j follow Great Biitain's example in tho I .patablishment of a Local Government I Doanl, whi-h would do nay with the prrs.-nt irritating system of divided I authority, overlapping and general vagueness. If the local authority bore were 1 compelled to appoint a =uffi< iont number of sanitaiy inspectors, and if the Government iuid (Oiuago enough to mmI pel a local _body to obey reasonable j ordeis, there would bo a different comj plcxion on the face of public health, , s.ud the ciitie last Manh. ami ,h? now i repeats his argument. These- inspectors i should he under the- supervision of tho Health Department branch of a big Lueal Government JJoanl, and so with the dairies, which would conic within the scope of the veterinary branch. The board would concern itself with everything connected with the health of tho community. It should bo able to send inspectors to distiiois whose statistics would show that there was some need of .sanitary improvements. This board, ioo, should havo power to compel local authorities to cuiy out works, independently of the Minister. If politics were allowed to intervene theie w.is no hope^ the authority stated, of a satisfactory settlement.