A RETROGRADE STEP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11289, 8 June 1897, Page 5

A RETROGRADE STEP.

The Lyttelton Council has decided, on the casting vote of the Mayor, to dispense with the services of the Health Officer and to allow the borough to drift into the insanitary condition that prevailed before his appointment. This is, of course, a matter that concerns the people of Lyttelton more than it concerns anyone else, but it is not creditable to Canterbury that a public body within its borders should deliberately declare that it prefers dirt and disease to the expenditure’of £3O a year. This is surely saving the rates at a cost which every friend of decency and humanity ■will condemn. There was not, so far as we can judge from tho report of the proceedings, a single argument advanced at last night’s meeting that could by any stretch of courtesy be taken to justify tho conclusion of the Council. The Mayor declared with great self-complacency that he knew the purpose for which he had been elected; but as ho was returned by b'carcely a fourth ox the ratepayers, we cannot admit that his presence at the Council table entitles his views and o pinions to any great amount of respect. Councillor, Webb quoted statistics which had no sort of bearing upon the question, and Councillor Brown, who is evidently a fatalist, was content with the reflection that epidemics are due to some mysterious agency that cannot he removed by inspection. Against all this impotent flummery there was a mass of undisputed testimony that the Health Officer had vastly improved the sanitary conditions and general health of the borough, and that bis services were warmly appreciated by the public. The vote terminating his appointment is one of the most glaring pieces of senseless obstinacy that has ever disgraced our municipal government.