UNDRAINED AREAS WITHIN THE BOROUGH

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2298, 17 November 1925, Page 7

UNDRAINED AREAS WITHIN THE BOROUGH

Mandate Sought Frau Health Authorities COUNCIL PERSUADED OP FUTILITY OP REQUEST When the ratepayers on two successive occasions had turned down the Palmerston North Borough Council’s proposals to extend the sewerage of the town, Cr. Oram brought for. ward the possibility of its being able to get the work done under powers provided in the Public Health Act. The Council thereupon wrote to the Health Department and asked for a report on the unsewered portions of the Borough. Drs. McKibbin and Mercer, of the. Health Department visited the town, and Cr. Graham, in reporting to the Council last evening,- mentioned that the doctor® were eulogistic in their references to the work that had been done by the Council In the matter of drainage and health. While sympathising with those ratepayers who were labouring under the lack of sewerage facilities, it was doubted if the Act would apply to conditions as they existed in Pal. merston North. The Act was really meant to apply to places where drainage was particularly bad, and ratepayers had repeatedly refused the local authorities’ permission to remedy it. Personally, he thought the Council should not pursue the matter any further, as he did not think the Board of Health would recommend the work. was surprised {to learn, Cr Graham, "that the existing conditions were not the menace to public health that I thought they were. Statistics show that diphtheria and other troubles were just as prevalent in drainage areas as in the undralned He considered, and the Council agreed, that the matter should be dropped until the ratepayers were la the humour to sanction a loan.