ELECTORS AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 2 March 1906, Page 4

ELECTORS AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

The Times suggests thai; it ia in his capacity as the official guardian of tho public healbh of the country, perhaps more than in any other, that the new president tf tha Local Government Board wiil be likely to find the best opportunities of displaying activity, and of rendering to the country services which political opponents would not be able to minimise or to deny. "The Public Health Act of 1872, and other minor enactments . . . may be said to have proceeded en the hypothesis that municipal electors would be sufficiently careful of their own ii'-es to exercise dvi discrimination in their selection of persons to adminis'er sanitary law within their several localities; and ib h s been taken for grantei tbafc the recurring elections of town councils and fcuch like bodiss would be used by ratepayers as an adequate means of obtainirg effective administration of tho law. The expeetat:on, whether or not io might have b?en regarded as reasona,i!e, has certainly nob le nn fu'filled ; and it is believed, by most of those who have studied the subject, that «ot only may something like one-half cf there u»l aninul mortality of the kingdom be regarded as preventiblo, bat tbab it wonld actually be prevented if the provisions of the exUtiog law were adequately carried out by the various aubfcoritias upon whom the i*uty of enforc ng them has be^n imposed by the Le^is'a Uf." Tbe Times fobs on to cite a Limber of fact?, in view cf which it contends tfca<; "one of the most urgent requirements o? the day is thab lcc*l sanitary authorities sh>nld ioclude so;r.e persoss, at least, who \ aye an acquaintance with the pracdcal requirements oi ttrs asp* c j of their work; and thab ratepayers should possess some propec and sufficient moan 3of compelling negligent sufchori ties to discharge the duties for which they are appointed. At pres3nt municipal elecbions are almost invariably cpnduoted upon purely political lined, lines which have ro discoverable relation to many of the duties which the persons elected ought to perform."