THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1900.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11371, 14 May 1900, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1900.

It has been evident for some time that ' local bodies in the colonies must reform and readjust themselves in respect to sanitation administration. These cities have been rushed up with very little attention to the necessities of public health arising from overcrowding, and we must go back on our tracks and begin again. We have been led into haste and inattention by the healthiness of the climate, and by the gradual manner in which houses have become crowded up in the larger cities. Look at Grey-street, for instance. At one time there were vacant spaces, and each house occupied an allotment running clown to the gully. Then the houses were built closely in the front, and speculators who did not consider sanitation so much as the percentage on investment, put several houses, with the necessary outbuildings, on each allotment. The City Council had by-laws, not perhaps sufficient, and certainly of no effect whatever if the officials considered it good policy to close their eyes to infractions. Thus have we drifted on till we are startled to find the plague in Sydney. But really we have been suffering for many years past. The evil effects of a scanty water supply, of an absence of drainage, of crowded dwellings and privies, have been experienced in Auckland for many years, in a higher death-rate than we ought to have had, and a lower average of I health in the community. No one escapes the evil influence of this sort of thing. The merchant or shopkeeper or professional man who comes to town at nine o'clock in the morning and leaves again at four or five, spending his leisure time and his nights in a purer airj is, of course, better off than those who are compelled to breathe the city air for twenty-four hours. But still he cannot wholly escape. He may consider himself and family safe, and may be an enthusiastic member of the Ratepayers' Association, which is pledged, whatever may happen, not to allow the rates to exceed 2s in the pound, or he may vote in the Council against the levying of a sanitary rate. But he takes a narrow, view even of his own interest, as he may find out soon. For assuredly one 'the chief subjects of pride of any locality is that it is salubrious and health-giving, That is greater than being beautiful. If the members of our City Council could be sent to pay a visit to some places in England, places having immensely greater difficulties to encounter than Auckland, they would learn a. few useful lessons. They would see how the highest-paid officer of the local bodies was the officer in charge of i the sanitation, and they would' also i

see : how large a proportion of .the urates was spent on maintaining a high sanitary standard. They would return with wider ideas, but ; also probably with 1 the conviction that everything necessary could not be done on a 2s; rate.. It • would improve some of the owners..;.<£ small tenements in crowded localities to consider how they "would be treated if in England, but we are afraid they are past conviction. or conversion. •• The present state of our sanitary administration is certainly nothing but confusion. The'whole subject was neglected till now. The sanitary officer kept one eye on nuisances and the other, and keener, on the members of the City Council. The duty of looking after this subject lies on the city authorities, and they must be made to do their work. But at present, nobody knows exactly who are in charge. An army of policemen have been despatched to invade the Africa of insanitation. They are no 6 responsible to the City Council. But they know nothing about the work. They may have zeal without discretion. We have heard of several cases when one constable camo round, inspected a back yard, and said that in a -sanitary point of view it was all that could be desired. Policeman X was followed by policeman Y, whose visit was followed by the prompt service of a summons, appearance at the Police Court, and a fine for maintaining a nuisance.. One lady had a few leaves raked together in her garden to be used for her pot plants, and was summoned for that. At the best, this is but cleansing the outside of the platter, while the real substantiate of sanitation are neglected. There is scarcely any city drainage, no destructor, no proper water supply. If every householder were to employ himself from morning till night with a broom in his back yard, Auckland could not be made a sanitary example, so long as a large portion of the drainage goes into gullies, and there remains, and there is no system of drainage. The Council ought to be punished, but they take refuge in the high moral motto that the rates must not exceed 2s in the pound. Like most reforms, this must commence with the people. They are the foundation. Our municipal constituency is ndw a wide one, and the best men ought to be placed in the Council. Reform will then come very easy.

We observe that it is proposed that the Government should take the site of the building now being erected in the Domain in case of the occurrence of any case of plague under tho Public Works Act. The Premier, in addressing the Council lately, said that he could take it under that Act, and the City Solicitor, who was present, acquiesced that the Government had power to do so. If Mr. Cotter had given that opinion after consideration and reference, we should have taken it as conclusive, but it was, as he would call it, merely a "travelling opinion," subject to correction. The Government cannot take slices of the Auckland Domain except for defence purposes, and 1 we do not think there is any necessity for their doing so in this case.

The duty of the City Council is to take the management of all matters of sanitation into its own hands, and not to allow them to run into absolute confusion, as has been the case. But ft must take care that it does perform these, and does not simply neglect them. There should be some central authority to assist and advise local bodies, and to see that operations are carried on throughout the colony harmoniously. And this central authority ought to have power to interfere in case of neglect, but not otherwise.