THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1881. THE EMASCULATED DRAINAGE BILL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2253, 22 June 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1881. THE EMASCULATED DRAINAGE BILL.

It is exceedingly difficult to understand the pertinacity with which some members of the Drainage Board hang on to the proposed Bill. They have stuck to it against public feeling and the protests of the ratepayers, yielding only at the eleventh hour, and that with very bad grace. As our readers are aware, a resolution was arrived at to proceed with the Bill, but that the Board would not object to the clauses referring to the carrying of excreta in the sewers being expunged. They love their infant far too well to perform the happy dispatch themselves, but will offer no resistance to anyone who will slaughter the bantling. In is inconceivable that any public body elected by the ratepayers should thus play fast and loose with their constituents. One of the members, Mr. Ross, gives it as his opinion that the Bill should be proceeded with as involving a principle. Wo should like to ask Mr. Ross what principle is involved at all when the excreta clauses are expunged ? We venture to say there is not one rag oi principle left in it. Indeed, the Bil without these clauses resembles the play of “ Hamlet ” with the character of the melancholy Dame omitted from the cast The Bill was projected—whatever th( Board may say to the contrary—for th( very purpose of giving them power tc have the excreta put in the sowers. 11 not for this, what was it intended to do i The Bill, except this, conferred no powerf upon the Board which they do noi now possess under their own Act. Why then, was it necessary for them to go tc the expense and trouble of promoting a private Bill to enable the Board to dc what they can do under the present Ad unless they wanted the extended power of compelling water-closet connection with the sewers ? This having gone by the Board, there is nothing left at all and it does seem to us what Artemus Ward calls “pure cussedness” on the part of the Board to try and push forward the Bill. They should accept the inevitable like men, and at once say, that as the public do not require the Bill they will at once withdraw it. This would bo far preferable to the backing and filling policy the Board has recently adopted. INSPECTION OF DAIRIES. It is very difficult to understand the opposition offered by the dairymen to to the proposed inspection of dairies. If the objection is to pay a license fee, that can easily'be remedied, but most certainly, in the interests of the public, and as a safeguard against the spread of infection and possible epidemics, it is necessary that some steps should bo taken in the matter. Modern science has taught us that the subtlety of the typhus poison is such, that it is almost impossible to discover its presence in the milk even by the most delicate chemical tests. A neglected drain or a cesspit will infect the whole produce of a largo dairy', and thus the milkman becomes, quite unconsciously, the means of spreading disease throughout hundreds of families. To prevent this, there surely can bo no oppression in an Inspector being detailed to carefully watch and guard against the evils to which wo have referred. There is no necessity oven for a license foo io bo paid; but, surely the dairymen will not object to such precautions being

taken ns will prevent the possibility of infection being carried through their wares. Wo hope the Board of Health will not be deterred from the good work <bey have entered upon by the mistaken notio ns of a few, who evidently entirely misconceive the scope of the intended inspection. Wo feel sure that the dairymen themselves, when they come to think the matter over, and look at it in the light of a proper precaution, will see that, both for the public and themselves, the proposal is one fraught with much good. STREET CROSSINGS. Those whoso business loads them ranch abroad in the streets of the city will bo pleased to see that at last some steps are to be taken to give the Council power to insist that proper crossings shall bo made whore entrances to business premises come on to the wide walk. At present the state of some of these are anything but creditable. The asphalt has been worn away by continuous and heavy traffic, and the result is that deep holes are formed, which, at this season of the year, become full of water. Wo hope, therefore, that the Council will so arrange it as to retain power to make persons having those crossings keep them in order. Whilst on this subject, it may not be out of place to call the attention of the City Council to tho necessity which exists for improving—or, rather, for introducing—tho regular street crossings. As it is no\l, one has to wade through a perfect lake of mud after leaving tho side-walks, and for ladies, especially in wet weather, the crossings are practically impassable. The cost of doing tho crossings on tho main thoroughfares would not be great, and the comfort and convenience to the public incalculable.