New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1874.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 133, 10 January 1874, Page 13

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1874.

Righteous in its intention, extensive in its scope, and elaborate in detail, the Public Health Act has not yet, either by action or anticipation on the part of the people, proved even approximately beneficial in improving the sanitary condition of our towns. Any traveller through the colony, commercial or uncommercial, who is possessed of ocular and olfactory organs, can, without the assistance of an inspector of nuisances, easily discover that the air in the populated parts of the country is tainted with the elements of typhoid and other ills which it is often falsely said are the inevitable inheritance of all flesh. There have in some instances been elaborate reports upon the sanitary condition of urban settlements, and in others some amount of action in the direction' of remedy on the part of district and local boards, but in the majority of cases, so ■far as can be found in the records by contemporaries, there has simply been a slight moving of the waters, and the subject has then been permitted to drift into the forgotten past. District Boards have respectfully dictated to Local Boards the course which the Act contemplates they should pursue, and Local Boards have respectfully intimated to District Boards that they have had the honor to receive their communication ; but the correspondence has contributed nothing to the amelioration of the element Stink, and the sanitary condition of towns has declined proportionately as the summer has advanced. To discover that this example of “ how not to do it” is not exceptional, but too common in communities where the matter is left to municipal councils or other bodies of local supervision, does not require that a person should peregrinate the country as a sanitary commissioner. It is presented to him in the proceedings of these bodies, and in the peculiarities of the atmosphere, wherever he may happen to be, and in the latter particulai-, even Wellington, notwithstanding the prevalence of those gentle zephyrs for which it is eminent, must be confessed to possess an atmosphere which half-a-dozen smaller places of questionable sanitary condition could very inadequately represent. Without venturing to say that there has been any intentional neglect on the part of those to whom has been committed the carrying out of the spirit of the Act, it may be safely suggested that by the central and district authorities there should be exhibited a liveliness of action and interest in their specific work, otherwise local bodies are apt to permit an Act which mmht be eminently useful to become a dead-letter, and the public will remain unprepared for those regulations and penalties which, in course of time, will come into force. So far as such a city as this is concerned, much must depend upon its Municipal Council, and upon the support which they may receive in the spirit of the citizens. It is unfortunately too palpable that, in sanitary arrangements, the city cannot boast of anything that is creditable, but the reverse. The introduction of a

water supply is, of course, a great step in the right direction, but much yet remains to be done to abolish those abominations which abound in backyards and in situations more prominent, and the many and various nuisances which affect the health of the community. Situated as the city is in a position where a system of sewerage can be carried out with as great facility and as little cost as are available in any town in the Colony, and increasing as its population rapidly is, it is high time that provision should be made for as perfect a plan of drainage as is attainable. The subject is by no means a new one, but time passes without any other result than the loss of that novelty. Plans abound, but practical result there is none, and if the Council and the community are really in earnest, the}' should unite in putting an end as early as possible to evils the existence of which is not creditable, and in inaugurating improvements the propriety of which, to say nothing of their absolute necessity, is becoming more obvious as the world grows older, and as the local atmosphere becomes more dense and odoriferous.