"A GRATUITOUS INSULT."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15554, 11 March 1914, Page 10

"A GRATUITOUS INSULT."

ROAD BOARD INDIGNANT.

BUILDING BY-LAWS.

EXCEPTION TO A LETTER.

"A gratuitous insult," was the descrip- I tion applied to a paragraph in a letter from the Auckland District Health Office, dated March 6, which was read at the meeting of the Epsom Road Board last evening. Dr. R. H. Makgill (district health officer) wrote in roply to a letter from the Road Board, dated March 4, that he would like to refer the board to section 108 of the Public Health Act, which, among other matters, enabled any local authority to make by-laws " concerning the erection, construction, and repair of buildings." This obviously included the quality and lengths of materials, and a number of local bodies other than boroughs had made and enforced by-laws dealing with such matters. 'Ihe Remuera Board had such a by-law, as also Eden Terrace and many others. If a district with a rapidly-growing population like Epsom could not control such matters the sooner they combined with the city the better. It was the last paragraph in this letter to which the board took exception. The chairman (Mr. W. R. Bloomfield) thought the letter could not be written by Dr. Makgill (whom he knew well), and that it must be the composition of one of his " understrappers." In any case the last paragraph in the report was very insulting. He did not know what was the reason for such discourtesy, unless it was that the Health Department was trying to rehabilitate itself after the criticisms during the time of the epidemic. He was sure that no local body was more solicitous for the public health than the Epsom Road Board. The letter referred to the quality of timber used in certain buildings, and he (the chairman) would like to point out that the business of the board was to see that the timber used was sound, but they had no control over the species of timber used. Objection had been taken to the use in buildings of timber that had been formerly cases in which motor-cars had been imported. The board had been legally advised that by-laws controlling the kind of timber used in dwellings—except as regards its soundness — would not be legal. It was agreed that the letter be returned, with a request for its more courteous wording, other members echoing the chairman's protest against the ' offending clause-